SI Archives Part 2: A House Divided
by Guardian54
Summary: The story continues with the Korean War, the rebuilding of Europe, and everything that happens before WWIII i.e. RA1. SI begins to clash with US interests for the first time in media, though nothing else. Not sure for genre, is this parody?
1. Peninsular Problems

A/N: I will endeavour to maintain historical accuracy with regards to the start of the various crises, but the US is going to be a lot more self-conscious of what happens in its occupied territories, and since it's kind of awkward fighting your own puppet at times… Uncle Sam employs someone else to do the dirty work when things get too big to ignore. This chapter skims most of the background of the Korean War and sets things up for the next chapters, then it gets fun (Tali paraphrase there)!

Note that anything that may be construed as racist was a matter of due course back then, or just an objective observation (such as "Koreans have a strong sense of racial purity" when referring to the GI Baby Syndrome as SI termed it). Reader discretion is advised.

I know saying one SI division has firepower equal to 40 Japanese divisions is overdoing it, but did you look at armour counts and such? Because of the massed attack tactics SI employs, it can bring to bear at one point in time around 4-5 times the firepower of an American division, although much of this superiority is as they are more capable of penetrating and wreaking havoc in the enemy's rear. 1 SI division against 4 American ones will be in BIG trouble unless they can engage the American ones one after another, but 10 vs. 40 division ratios is a whole different story. One of the Manchu kings, the one just before they took over China, said in the late 1500s or around 1600 that "However many ways you come, I will only go in one." Also, at Okinawa in our history Japanese calculated American divisions to be 6 or 7 times theirs in firepower. Now, with better US hardware and Japanese industry basically half-dead, it's gone up to 8 or 9 Jap equals 1 US. So even though one SI division can take on maybe 25 Japanese divisions directly, 8 can engage at least 256 or even 400 comfortably. Are you aware how bad the Japanese tanks were? At medium ranges, a 40mm shell from a Bofors (Hannah stole some schematics, then engineered her own version before Bofors could build and patent theirs, hence we have the A-WTC-40-75A) can punch through the armour of one, and a 95mm shell would cut through multiple Japanese "medium" tanks in one shot if they were lined up, even at long range, if it was an armour-piercing shell.

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><p>Chapter 1: Peninsular Problems<p>

_May-July, 1948_

The UN had long before passed Resolution 112 calling for a general election ASAP under the supervision of the UN Commission. However, Communist China blockaded the UN Commission from accessing the northern part of Korea and ostensibly held elections with 99.6% voter turnout (impossible) and 86.3% voting in favour of the government-backed candidates. To Hannah, this stank of puppet ideological states. The UN commission seemingly ignored this at first and demanded a general election in South Korea on July 10.

The division of Korea was why the US troops only really took Kyushu during the Invasion of Japan, they were busy jumping off to Korea. It was on May 1 that the communist Worker's Party of South Korea planned to hold rallies denouncing and blocking the upcoming general elections scheduled for July 10. 2500 party cadres were arrested and at least 300 machine-gunned in the clear in front of US forces under MacArthur, who could do exactly nothing.

On June 3, 1948, 80 days after Hirohito's execution, the trigger-happy police of Jeju Island opened fire on a demonstration commemorating the Korean struggle against Japanese rule. Outraged, the people of the island attacked 12 police stations, in the chaos, hundreds were killed and rebels burnt polling centres for the upcoming election, in addition to attacking political opponents and their families. Then the rebels issued an appeal to the populace to rise up against the American occupation forces. The appeal found sympathy due to the local government and police being believed to have collaborated with the Japanese, plus the heavy taxation on agricultural goods the US levied in return for US relief supplies. The latter point was true across all liberated territories that wanted US support as SI did not offer long-term relief, though much of the scrap materials it scavenged in the latter part of World War Two had still been recycled into machinery used in the reconstruction of Germany.

Hannah phoned the South Korean government upon hearing of the revolt, as her troops were, if nothing else, a total of about 5000 tank-mounted (and more APC-mounted) bulldozer blades that were available for clearing rubble. "Hello, this is General Hannah Shepard, I would like to inquire if you would like to purchase the services of one or two Brigades of my forces for employment on Jeju Island."

"Hello… Generalissimo…" The man's contemptuous tone toward one infinitely greater than he would ever be grated on her nerves a bit. Was it ever mentioned that Hannah HATED the sexist aspect of Oriental society? "We can assure you that we have the situation under control." Oh, and she really didn't like being too focused on saving face not to see a disaster coming, with the tensions between the Koreas, something had to give.

"Really? That's good to hear." She couldn't exactly hang up or ask if he was sure, if things got worse, they would blame it on her, and based on Oriental sexism the people with power i.e. the males would probably swallow whatever their government fed them if it was against her, be it propaganda, poison or, in her personal opinion/commentary, semen.

With the SK government seeking a speedy resolution, 3000 troops were sent from the South Korean 11th Constabulary Regiment to reinforce local police, but hundreds of soldiers mutinied on the 29th of June, handing over large numbers of small-arms to the rebels. The next event saw the first instance where Hannah and an Allied government went bayonet-to-bayonet…

Several hundred members of the so-called "Northwest Youth Association", young anti-communist male (of course, Hannah thought, most of the women in most Oriental societies of the 1940s are barefoot and pregnant…) "refugees" from North Korea, were sent in as a paramilitary force. It only took a couple days before they gained notoriety, because they were committing atrocities right in front of the noses of the US troops present. MacArthur discreetly phoned Hannah "If you could stamp down that NYA mess over in Jeju we'd all be very grateful, it's getting embarrassing back home that it's happening in an Allied-held territory." The NYA members often murdered Jeju civilian males and then forced the women into marriage with them so they could inherit the land.

Even Truman found it a bit embarrassing, but he couldn't denounce the South Koreans as the situation on the peninsula was quite tense and if the US didn't support South Korea, the Allies wouldn't have a convenient jump-off near the USSR and China. However, he did sent Hannah the message of "If you'd like to help mediate a peace via some means on Jeju, feel free to go ahead."

This time, she didn't bother taking too many forces, Jeju was after all a tiny island. First Division was based on Kyushu now, and was the nearest to the crisis. It would be enough. The troops had, two divisions by two divisions, been given a month of leave. April had First and Second on leave, mid-April to mid-May had Third and Fourth on leave, mid-May to mid-June had Fifth and Sixth on leave after First and Second returned, and Seventh and Eight would be off for all of June, then be sent to Europe. So at present, and for the near future, she had at her disposal in the Pacific only six divisions, 120,000 troops.

She had come to an arrangement through which she could support such a vast military, with ten fully modernized or beyond-modernized divisions and two significant fleets. Since tank manufacturing plants were also automobile plants SI had begun preparations for peacetime operations as soon as the Battle of the Bulge began. In addition to manufacturing high-end and medium-level consumer goods ranging from cars to mining gear (one of their special recipes for rubber, one of those used in tank armour, made very good helmets) to bicycles in the many, many factories she owned, her troops were also being rented out. They served as training personnel, hazardous construction/deconstruction personnel, local law enforcement, relief distribution, road-paving, practically anything. After all, a tank being used as a dozer is MUCH sturdier than, well, a dozer being used as a dozer, hence needed less replacing, less coddling, and "undefined" larger (any non-zero number divided by 0 is undefined) numbers of shells. The 95mm cannons proved highly useful for demolitions of truly dangerous buildings… much as they'd been used in the War. Thanks to all these jobs that governments contracted her for, and the consumerism proliferating in America after the war by another generation of soldiers just wanting to forget the horrors they'd seen, she was getting by, even if her budget was a bit tight thanks to the amount of support she was giving Gunter and Germany.

Anyways, on July 5, after the 5,000 death mark had been passed on Jeju, Hannah finally determined that she would intervene even if the job went unpaid. First Division loaded up into freighters—another major income source for her, as the American Liberty Ships weren't nearly as mine-resistant, nor were they as fast or anywhere close in size—at Fukuoka. It was almost like a ghost town nowadays, but the Japanese that remained tried to get on with their lives and the SI troops helped where they could. First Aviation Brigade had established its main bases near Fukuoka, so it was a relatively simple thing to call in close air support for offensives—it was an hour away—but not so much for defensive operations.

Upon arrival, the first priority was rooting out and exterminating the bands of Northwest Youth Association soldiers ruthlessly and efficiently. The troops didn't take much persuading after hearing of the NYA's atrocities from Hannah, who they unconditionally trusted. 300 NYA members were reported killed within the first two days as her troops covered the island, without South Korean complaints as MacArthur had seemingly delivered a message to the effect of "we're cleaning up your mess, don't insult the janitor", and the rebels, seeing this, agreed to peace talks. The rebels demanded disarmament of the local police, who had supposedly collaborated with the Japanese during the War, dismissal of all local governing officials, prohibition of paramilitary youth groups on the island, and re-unification of the Korean peninsula.

Hannah met with Kim Dalsam, the leader of the rebels, personally the day after the rebel's envoy arrived. She began with, after the greetings, "On my orders the whole island is under lockdown, so any evidence of corruption or collaboration by the officials will be found by my troops, who are searching all over the place for relevant documents. Those found guilty will be dismissed, you can be assured of that, the local police have all been rounded up and their documents have been seized so that we may go through them. Don't worry, my men will be quite thorough, they didn't like the killing and forced marriages the NYA were doing, considered them barbaric really… We're eviscerating the NYA from this island, and you can put up a local law banning similar groups, but you'll have to agree to peace first."

"Those do not sound like unreasonable terms, since you're not asking for us to all to just become prisoners or something…" Dalsam stated with a small frown "But what about reunifying the peninsula?"

"I can guarantee that there will be no long-term Great Divide or anything similar between the Koreas, but that is only if North Korea does something immensely stupid and makes me go after it. Please explain to me, what is so good about a Communist system compared to a democratic one? I have read the basic works of communism and socialism, and they demand a democracy, do you see the USSR being a democracy? No, it has a mad dictator named Stalin who conducted big purges throughout the country. That doesn't happen in the US, or at least no one would be so brazen about it whereas the people of the USSR are cowed into submission and starving due to the failures of collectivized farming."

Dalsam snorted "What about yourself? You are essentially monarch over Palestine right now, are you not?"

"Not really, I don't participate in much, I have veto power, but major decisions either come my way for scrutiny naturally or aren't against my ideology anyways since the Constitution s so thorough. Believe me, I support socialism, but I believe that socialism needs democracy and that Communism will fail if it doesn't deliver democracy."

After one hour of ideological debating the man was floored and convinced that Hannah knew best, and it only took four days for peace to be re-established on the island after that, with the few surviving NYA members dealt with over the next week. They were rooted out by the rebels, who Hannah acknowledged as the Jeju Militia, or burnt alive in their hiding places by Raider IIs fitted with flamethrowers once the rebels cornered them and confirmed their identities. Many of the local officials and police WERE found to be corrupt and collaborating with the Japanese, so they were tried in a People's court and exiled from the island as Hannah didn't let them get shot and arranged the transportation anyhow. The South Korean government was powerless to do anything as the US supported Hannah behind the scenes. However, it did manage to leave the island with a crop of loyal, upstanding officials who were the ones making the best out of a horrible situation during the Japanese occupation, along with a chastised and much cleaner police force, in addition to preventing more civilian casualties… for now.

As for the records of the rebels the South Korean government wanted, Hannah told Dalsam to collect all their files and dump them in a dry cave for "safe-keeping", with her and him supervising the process. Then they went inside to check the stowage of the documents and ordered them stowed in organized shelf-style on the two crates they'd been brought in. Finally, Hannah asked everyone else to leave, and once they did she pulled out her pistol and fired the whole clip in an irregular rhythm into the depths of the cave as she ran outside. "Ambush attempt, NYA members! Burn them before they can steal the documents!" She shouted to the commander of the Raider II that they'd brought as a security precaution.

The bulky but surprisingly agile 57-ton Main Battle Tank rolled up to the cave mouth and torched all the documents and records of the rebels so that they would not be persecuted too much. To quote Hannah's operational report "The documents were tragically lost when we were fired upon, and had to burn out any more NYA members who might have been hiding in the cave." It was not outside the realm of possibility that NYA members were still hiding in the cave after the search, since it had happened once (resulting in the deaths of three SI soldiers) before. No one dared question the factuality of the report, and with her reputation of always "doing what's right" only a few even thought to question it. Of course, that was in terms of people who actually mattered, quite a few South Korean Naval Intelligence officers questioned SI's involvement in their internal affairs. They were right to question it, for it, not North Korea, would be the greatest threat to the Syngman Rhee government, and the worst thing was that it had the quiet backing of the United States, which South Korea could not afford to offend if it wanted to continue existing.

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><p>AN: Why can Hannah persuade people like Kane could? You'll find out later, much later.

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><p><em>October, 1948<em>

Hannah had pulled back to Japan, and was rather annoyed when she heard of further revolts in Yeosu, Suncheon and nearby towns near the southernmost tip of the Korean Peninsula, apparently sparked by her support of the Jeju Island rebels. She disapproved of the rampant corruption and dictatorial government of South Korea, but she wasn't going to intervene on their side this time, since the rioters were murdering rightist families and Christian youths. Women were, as typical, being raped… and hence First Division abruptly shifted location again to, split up into brigade-sized combined-arms units (one battalion from each Brigade), squash the rebellions utterly. Surprisingly, Rhee actually thanked Hannah for this favour, though of course he said nothing about how his government had been found so badly wanting back when she weighed their sins against the Jeju Island rebels.

Seeing these and other conflicts among the Allies, and severely in need of a massive armoured force of his own to project against his foes, Mao Zedong, leader of Communist China, asked Hannah via an envoy to help stop the corruption in South Korea, Tibet, Sinkiang and southern China. Her reply was that "I will act… but if and only if their sins become far too great to ignore. Good luck, Chairman, I hope you will be less corrupt than the Nationalists…" She didn't like the man, but that didn't mean she couldn't respect him, much as she'd respected and hated Hitler and Hirohito… though she didn't hate Mao nearly as much.

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><p><em>May-July, 1949<em>

The Mungyeong Massacre on the 24th of April had awakened her to the true nature of the beast, and she had a feeling it had an effect on MacArthur too. That, she surmised, was why he'd called this glum meeting. "So, General, what do you want to see me for?" She asked, sitting casually opposite the glum-looking American man.

"I think Rhee's gone a bit too far… I can't see how we can keep the people's support behind him, and if it wasn't for the President insisting we support that American-educated…"

*NOTE: To prevent readers of this archive from being offended and suing again, MacArthur's foul language has been censored from this edition, for proper reference, please look for a Uncensored Edition copy of this Archive. We at Shepard Industries Archivists ® are sorry for this inconvenience, if you wish to lodge a complaint as to the censorship, please protest at your nearest South Korean consulate or embassy, however, before doing so, please don appropriate protective gear and have armoured support on standby in case things turn ugly.

MacArthur used a few choice words before continuing "…shooting children and old people right in front of my troops… what were they thinking? They should know my men almost shot the killers… they learnt from your troops that the best way to deal with sentient beings acting like rabid animals was to shoot them like they were rabid animals. The only thing that stopped my men from dealing with the killers, who by the way acted like nothing had happened even while we, ahem, slowed them down for a chat while my men asked me about it, was ME personally ordering them to spare the fuckers."

"I don't know, General, I don't know what to say, what to do, everyone on the peninsula seems to have gone insane, but as long as I have operational freedom, I'll put down Syngman Rhee if and when it becomes necessary… when his crimes demand it. You okay with that General?"

MacArthur snorted "I would donate a bottle of champagne for the occasion if I could get away with it politically. By the way, how do you have so much political immunity? It would be nice if I could get so much freedom."

Hannah shrugged "I don't know, I think it's because I only do bad things to people who really deserve it… and otherwise keep strict discipline over my troops' behaviour" She knew full well that it came with having a large Propaganda Department taking care of public relations, but she wasn't going to say it directly…

That meeting had been some time ago, when MacArthur had made it clear that he would turn a blind eye as long as Hannah's troops did nothing totally outrageous. In this case, they were going to be hanging around Kyushu doing nothing while their General went on a vacation to Tibet for a few months. She took a long horse trek across the Himalayas so that she could get a good look of what Tibet really was like. She didn't like what she saw.

It was a feudalistic society where the serfs were punished severely by the aristocrats—mostly the monks—for even the smallest of things. Stealing a chicken would get your nose or some other body part cut off, and boiling/skinning people alive as punishment was not exactly rare. She had video footage of everything, captured by Tanya's skilled and stealthy team, which accompanied her into Tibet, and she had a feeling that if Propaganda sold this right the people back home would be barking for a crusade of some sort. She came out of Tibet utterly sick of what they were doing to innocents (whatever she did, she did to the deserving) and sent Mao a one-line message "If you want to liberate Tibet, I will support you in the world media".

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><p>AN: Believe it or not, the only people protesting China reclaiming Tibet (it was historically Chinese territory or client state) are the escaped nobility and top level of the feudal society, the underdogs, the vast majority, are happy to be "liberated" and stayed where they are today, in Tibet. Before you start yapping about the Sinkiang thing, note this: The Chinese had established a presence in the area before 500 AD, the rioting minority group came from Siberia about 1000 AD, the locals let them settle there… and now they're telling the old residents to leave "their land". Remember, the privileged don't want a system to change no matter how despicable it is. The current Dalai Lama was only a child at the time so he is not at all to blame, and I don't believe he fully understands what he is advocating, he deserves respect, but his cause…

Oh, and I think this will present the media defeat/rift that you wanted, S058, if you're still reading at all.

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><p><em>July, 1950<em>

Hannah was hardly surprised when North Korea invaded, or at least when she was briefed. however she was surprised by the brutality both sides displayed. The North Koreans were conducting a massive purge as they came south, which in her opinion slowed their operations down, and Syngman Rhee was ordering a "Pre-emptive Apprehension of Leftists" nation-wide. On the 27th of June, as he evacuated from Seoul, the son of a bitch ordered the execution of all Bodo League (suspected political opponents or possible sympathizers) members and South Korean Worker's Party members. It was like the motherfucker never took a good look in the mirror to see if he wasn't being like the Japanese in World War Two…

Douglas MacArthur had acted with speed suited to his office, as soon as the reports were confirmed, he ordered the immediate halting of all massacres across South Korea and authorized his troops to employ "Whatever means necessary to prevent the deaths of innocents at the hands of the south Korean military". It was too late to save the 200,000 already killed, but it stopped further killings. On multiple occasions US troops and British soldiers, after liberating sites where thousands of children had already been killed, nailed the perpetrators to the ground with stakes and ran them over, feet-first, with tanks. Hannah personally endorsed this behaviour, and the slogan "Grinding treads prevent dead children" was essentially shouted from the rooftops by her organization's Propaganda Department.

Unfortunately, the in-fighting this caused and the political backlash meant that the Allies were disadvantaged. Against the 89,000 North Korean troops, the Republic of Korea Army buckled like a wet paper bag, and the Far East US forces were not doing much better. Due to recent budget cuts to military equipment in favour of putting funding into the Marshall Plan (rebuilding Europe) MacArthur's forces were under-strength and using relatively aged equipment, including bazookas incapable of penetrating the Soviet-made T-45s the North Koreans were using. The M48 tank had been invented, yes, but it was still not in the scene on the Far East and would not be for several critical months. Perhaps it was fate that put elements of the 21st Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division as the first line of US forces to engage, on July 5, 1950, the North Koreans at Osan. The North Koreans were first spotted around 0730.

Of the first column of 8 tanks, only two were destroyed or disabled, the rest rumbling by ignoring the ineffectual American fire, though they did destroy two of the howitzers present, the ones that had been placed forward and been issued the only twelve HEAT shells the division had. To quote MacArthur on the report "This… is why I wished we'd switched to all-HEAT artillery load-outs when our buddies did." The first Bazooka model could not penetrate the T-45 (an up-armoured, up-powered version of the T-40 fitted with an 85mm gun), but the second could, and MacArthur had already requisitioned the better weapons as soon as the war started. Unfortunately, they took time to get there.

At about 1100, a column of three tanks leading a column of trucks, upward of 9 kilometres long, was spotted, and at 1145 when the column was under 900 meters away the Americans opened fire with everything they had. It took until 1430 for the man in charge of the US troops, Colonel Smith, to order a withdrawal. They had only 120 bullets each for their rifles, and were running out after nearly three hours of fighting. His troops had mostly only eight weeks basic training, and it was pretty bad, mostly about marching, saluting, and looking right, they were inexperienced, and the hordes of better-trained North Korean troops proved too much for them. However, they still mostly retreated in orderly fashion, despite the enemy slowly moving to envelope them. C company, then the medics, then the HQ, and finally B company pulled back. 2nd Platoon, B Company, failed to get the order, however, and when they found themselves alone it was too late. They had to leave their wounded and an attending medic as they routed.

Those wounded would later be found shot to death in their litters and the medic was never found. The vehicles of Task Force Smith were found intact and took the troops away. Upon first count, 20 had been killed, 130 wounded or missing, and around 36 captured. Later it would be found that 60 had been killed, 21 wounded, and 82 captured, with only 50 of those captured returning alive.

The next delaying action on the road south from Suwon was at Pyongtaek, the 34th Infantry Regiment of the 24th Infantry Division engaging the North Koreans on July 6, 1950. It was similarly very badly equipped, and given faulty intelligence that said the advancing North Koreans were poorly trained and equipped. Only a few troops had WWII combat experience, and they'd been transferred from another division only days ago. Each man had less than 100 bullets for his rifle… though fortunately everyone had at least a rifle. Brigadier Barth told the unit to only hold as long as it could, and not risk being flanked or enveloped. This caution led to half the regiment's strength being moved south to Chonan, followed by an utter rout as soon as contact was made with the enemy. Not having been subjected to even simulated live-fire, the troops often hid in their foxholes instead of shooting back. General Dean, the divisional commander, was extremely angry about the rout, and took the blame for himself as he'd allowed one inexperienced battalion to try to hold against an enemy superior in all respects. The man's journal morbidly said "It was almost worse than what I heard of the conquest of Tokyo…"

Chonan was a better fight, as the Americans held through the night of the 7th and into the morning of the 8th of July, but still in the end local numerical superiority, better training and better equipment saw the North Koreans push the Americans into another rout. It was to MacArthur, listening to the report, strangely nostalgic of how the Axis forces had routed in the looming mechanical tide that Hannah's army represented in WWII. Annoyingly, Hannah had been slow to mobilize her forces, thanks to the massacres Syngman Rhee had ordered, and warned the man that should he flee Korea at any point in the war he would be "dealt with".

General William F. Dean joined his men in the house-to-house fighting that raged around Taejon until July 25th, then retreated. The man was awarded a Medal of Honour for joining his men under fire to hunt the North Korean tanks with the new Bazookas they'd recently been shipped. He had however bought time for the establishment of the Pusan Perimeter, and the North Korean leadership began issuing stricter rules on prisoner treatment out of concern for what their soldiers were doing. Unfortunately these would not be enforced per se for several months.

On the other hand, the Pusan Perimeter had been fully dug in, and considering the stockpiles of rations brought in at first to help feed the Japanese and now being offered for sale to MacArthur at a reasonable price, he had food for his troops. The 7.5mm Battle Rifles the US Army used, which were SI-designed guns, mostly licensed for production in the US, were easy to find ammunition for once he asked. However, he still had little for his artillery and even fewer tanks. What he could comfort himself on was the intel gleaned from captives, who said the North Koreans were subsisting on one or two meals a day and didn't have enough ammunition in their forces to exploit any new breakthroughs.

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><p><em>August, 1950<em>

While the Pusan Perimeter Campaign was raging and the UN was holding the line just fine, Hannah received alarming intelligence reports from Jeju Island about thousands being detained, then sorted into perceived-threat groups, labelled A, B, C and D. Due to the sheer stench of Gestapo-like activity around the island, she decided "to offer better close air support against North Korean positions and forces in South Korea" by moving two divisions there, one of them an Aviation Division, without more than an hour's prior notice.

Needless to say, that turned out disastrously when the troops caught wind of the mass executions and burnings of villages conducted by South Korean soldiers. The young men and women kidnapped form the villages were still being killed a day after Hannah issued an ominous warning to the commander of the troops, so she decided to abandon all pretences and declare "All South Korean military forces on Jeju Island participating in the purging of the population are fair game for neutralization."

Once it was found that the young men were killed after kidnapping and the women killed after being gang-raped over several weeks, as per the reports of Tanya's commando team after eliminating several South Korean Army installations, Hannah sent the report to Truman. They went along with a warning that if Syngman Rhee did any more of this she would declare war on his PERSON.

Unfortunately, some of her soldiers became so angry that they gunned down some of the South Korean troops after they surrendered, without authorization to do so. These men and women were restrained and brought to their superiors, then dishonourably discharged (i.e. fired) and shipped back to Canada. The Korean girls who'd been gang-raped were given the chance to identify their rapists. These rapists were then strung up in chains and bolted spread-eagle to walls before their victims, armed with issued bayonets, were let loose on them. To quote one SI soldier as he watched the slaughter "I don't do innocent-killing, pretty much all of us don't, and we're strictly not allowed to, but these guys… they earned it. I can't argue with that."

When the battle-field reporter asked him why, he replied that "I was one of the soldiers who overran them bastards, I remember kicking down a door with my SMG and catching five son of a bitches with their pants down raping…that girl over there." He pointed at one young woman who was stabbing one of her once-rapists over and over again, screaming obscenities in Korean and sobbing as their blood splattered her face. "It wasn't pretty, if they hadn't put their hands up to be cuffed and tied up by my squad, any one of us would have mown all of them down right there for 'resisting', but they did, and we weren't authorized to kill prisoners of war after a surrender unless it was approved by at least a Theatre Commander… It's good to see these men getting the only justice they'll ever get, they burnt sixty percent of the island's villages, did you know that? Fifteen thousand people died at their hands, and now they're getting what they deserve, nothing more, nothing less. When we get hands on the North Korean secret police units that are conducting the purges they're doing as they come south, and maybe the South Korean units doing their own purges, we'll do some more dispensing of justice if our Generalissimo allows it." Propaganda met unexpected resistance selling that one in America, though it worked well elsewhere. However, it also meant that UN public support for this War shifted from "Support South Korea" to "Remake South Korea" which the US did not like. Hence the US Army stopped purchasing firearms from SI factories and began their own firearms development, trusting that their current stocks would hold fine in the interim. That alarmingly meant SI was at an extremely thin profit margin unless Hannah cut down on supplies shipped to Gunter or started charging more than a formality for them.

As for the political part of the backlash, when Hannah, Syngman Rhee and MacArthur met in Pusan, she had blinked stupidly when he demanded "What happened to my men? How did so many of them get killed after you took over the security of the island?"

"The ones burning villages and killing people out in the open even after we told them to stop" That message had been in English just so that not too many would immediately get the point and give her a casus belli "we thought they were North Korean insurgents. Mr. Rhee, you had to have told your men we were coming to help… but when they're busy burning, raping and looting, I can't tell the difference between your men and North Koreans, so I had to stop them. As for the rapists, I don't know how the civilians got bayonets," Her way of handling out bayonets was by opening several crates of bayonets and leaving them on the ground in front of the wall that the rapists were chained to, though the meaning was very clear thanks to a paper sign that was burnt after the fact "maybe the civilians your troops captured got tired of being used for bayonet practice and seized their bayonets. The ones that were identified as rapists by the local civilians were being held for questioning when the mob swarmed our guards, who were limited to peaceful means of pushing the mob back, and killed the scumbags. We weren't about to shoot down a crowd of victimized women for getting a little revenge…"

"That's called letting people get away with war crimes, Generalissimo Shepard, what happened to your policy of doing what was right?" Rhee sneered. MacArthur's lips were pursed and his eyes open wide, his face obviously straining to hold in laughter at the absurdity of the situation. He was privately thinking that he never did like Rhee and that Hannah was probably more correct than the man was.

"Letting rapists die is a good thing for your country, your people, Mr. Rhee, you would do well to remember that." Shepard leaned forward imperiously. "Most of your men were spared, and have been returned to you unharmed, only the guilty ones were dealt with. You would do much worse yourself, or have you forgotten the Bodo League Massacre? Or the killings the North Koreans are conducting as they come south? Are you no better than them?" The only reason she hadn't intervened was that she would crush the North Koreans so fast and so thoroughly China would swarm her, and she wanted decent relations with that country. It could be a useful counterweight for the USSR or US, depending on circumstances.

That meeting did not end on the best of terms, and Rhee only ceded defeat on the Jeju Island issue and accepted because of how valuable the massed fighter-bomber support from the Island was proving in the western and southern sectors of the Perimeter. They were being used in everything from sir-superiority—though the aging warplanes were not quite as good as the P-51 Mustang—to parachuting supplies to units. MacArthur continued the talk with Hannah after Rhee left. "I'm planning a landing… would you mind leasing me some hardware?"

Hannah smirked "Where and when?"

"Inchon, 15 September or thereabouts."

"Why do you need my ships? Don't you have enough of your own?"

"We all know you have the only decently armoured and armed landing craft available to me right now, Hannah, no need to be modest. The harbour at Inchon isn't great, but it's at least not mined, so it's a good spot to land."

"Alright, I'll lease the services of one Supply Flotilla to you for a duration of two weeks, starting on the 11th and ending on the 24th, that alright with you?"

MacArthur nodded slowly "Twenty-five 20,000-ton capacity freighters, eight of your Corvettes, three Frigates and a Destroyer… that should be more than enough when coupled with the extra bombardment capacity I can bring to bear."

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><p>Hannah nearly died of shock when she realized what MacArthur was doing. He was pushing on Seoul in an advance so grindingly slow that the North Koreans were getting a chance to retreat. Despite the heaps of supplies her freighters delivered once their landing ship job concluded in success with only minor, negligible damage to the ships, MacArthur was going for Seoul instead of slashing across the waist of the peninsula. He could have cut off all North Korean forces in South Korea permanently, but he had to fulfill his personal promise to the South Koreans to reclaim their capital. Her opinion of him went from very high to medium-low in an instant after getting that news. As a result, about 30,000 North Korean soldiers made it north across the Yalu River, where clandestine support from the USSR and China saw their units reformed and re-equipped. Stalin seemed to be using the Koreans as a dump for his obsolete T-45s… while he himself was involved in the development of newer and better tanks.<p>

Anyhow, MacArthur's strategy was totally unlike the decisive German strategies in the Baltic area in WWII, with limited recon, rear command posts, cautious, restrictive orders, and phase lines, taking 11 days to move 20 miles. She could have cut across the whole peninsula in 11 hours‼! The Americans squandered their strategic success, unlike the WWII Germans who made 200 miles in 4 days using breakthrough mentality. The Germans had done things in her current way: positioning leaders as far forward as feasible, relying on oral or short written orders, reorganizing combat groups, and engaging in vigorous recon. Still, by the time she could have jumped into the fray it was already too late to simply tear a huge hole in the North Korean military. As a result, Hannah stayed mostly out of the war… for now.

October came and went, with the Battles of Yongju and Chongju, then November came, and with it the pouring of Chinese forces across the Yalu River. MacArthur had wanted to take the initiative with China, yet Truman disagreed and ordered a limited war, handing the initiative on a silver platter to the Chinese. The Communist Chinese were vastly underprepared for a blitzkrieg-style modern war, but having the initiative they pushed the UN forces south steadily. Zhou Enlai was the overall commander and coordinator of the war effort and Peng Dehuai was the field commander. UN air recon failed epically as the Chinese employed dark-to-dark marching, from 1900 to 0300 each night, and would remain motionless if an aircraft appeared. They managed to surprise the UN forces and quickly turn the tide through sheer numbers, directed against the weaker South Korean units instead of the strong American units.

Hannah had to face-palm regarding the combat reports from Unsan, as optimism had prevented the UN forces from taking warnings about overwhelming Chinese forces seriously and resulted in UN forces being smashed embarrassingly. Her commanders were drilled that should an attacker be expected to appear in force enter the field at all an immediate fisting of forces needed to occur and a breakthrough be made, or an organized retreat, ideally under cover of darkness. However, China had pulled back, obviously to resupply and regroup, since their lack of full-scale mechanization meant they couldn't bring that much food and ammunition with them into Korea, and with how thoroughly the Chinese-Korean border railways had been annihilated that wouldn't work either.

Still, by November 15, when the Chinese first offensive phase was over, MacArthur believed Chinese involvement to be currently limited and that he had adequate forces to deal with them. The dropping temperatures made maintenance difficult and he purchased additional supplies stockpiled in Japan, namely thousands of canisters of used Winter Lubricant dating from the original invasion of Japan. They were somewhat contaminated with Standard Lubricant thanks to how the things were changed and recycled for reuse, but popping a couple fresh canisters to top them off allowed the old canisters to be sold to MacArthur for his troops. Typically, fresh, pure Winter Lube was only needed every year if one was entering, say, Siberia or the Antarctic. Otherwise, one could recycle it in a temperate-zone operational theatre for up to five or even ten years without it becoming too contaminated for use, as long as one was careful when changing the lubricant, which also functioned as heat exchange fluid and such.

Working with intel that said only 30,000 Chinese could be hiding in the hills, MacArthur ordered the bridges over the Yalu bombed. When Hannah reminded him that appearances weren't everything, his reply was "Not everyone has the submersible tanks and APCs you do, Generalissimo, I believe that the Chinese only have a handful of tanks, period, so… I believe it would be a good idea to hit them now before they could purchase enough hardware from the USSR."

She couldn't disagree with that thought, but she did tell him "Stationary columns are near-impossible to detect from the air, and I doubt you'll get all the big troop movements over the Yalu river…"

Still, MacArthur launched the Home-By-Christmas offensive on November 30. Unbeknownst to him, Peng Dehuai had more than 180,000 People's Volunteer Army soldiers in North Korea, and aimed to push the UN forces to just north of Pyongyang with his Second Phase Offensive. More troops were arriving every day, so he ordered his units to fake a rout north, releasing prisoners along the way, and authorized the start of the Second Phase Campaign on November 30. The UN troops had such high morale that there was an average of less than one grenade and 50 rounds of ammunition carried per man into the offensive. Most of the helmets were also discarded by the overconfident UN troops.

By contrast, the Chinese had an average of one rifle per three soldiers… and five days of rations per man. However they still fought tenaciously and in the Battle of Ch'ongch'on River drove the US and UN forces back hard. The ensuing Battles of Wawon and Chosin Reservoir destroyed about 50% of China's PVA forces and allowed the US forces to establish another defence line south of the 38th Parallel. However, the front line then stabilized with the Chinese running low on food and ammunition, for example, at Ch'ongch'on River the PVA lost officially about 20,000 troops as combat casualties, though the total casualty count was 45,000 from hunger and cold. Eighth US Army, or what was left of it, took the opportunity and entrenched south of the 38th Parallel. A ceasefire at the 38th Parallel was proposed to China on December 11, 1950.

Mao chose to see this proposal as a sign of weaknesses that China could and should exploit further. Against the advice of Peng and other generals, he ordered the PVA to invade South Korea, a mission well beyond the PVA's fragile supply capabilities. It would prove to be such an embarrassment that the war would be settled on amicable peace terms between the major belligerents, but there would be much bloodshed before that point…

Beginning on December 10, reports piled in of night attacks and encirclements with loud trumpets and gongs. MacArthur surmised in his memos to her—and Hannah agreed—that the trumpets and gongs were both for disorientation and signalling. Seoul was lost again on January 9, 1951 as the UN forward defences collapsed under the sheer weight of the Chinese offensive, and MacArthur began contemplating the use of nuclear weapons against the interior of North Korea. The fallout zones would disrupt North Korean and Chinese supply chains, he hoped, but he was also concerned with side effects for his own forces and how immediately effective—or decidedly not—it would be.

It had been found with two nuclear tests in Nevada that radiation belts could last for at least many months after an atomic bomb went off, and that these belts were very dangerous. A bunch of actors using a valley were dying even now because of the valley being the location of the second nuclear test, even though they had waited two months before going in. Still, MacArthur had to wonder how the massive manpower available to China would, or would not, be affected by the fallout, probably it wouldn't even put a dent into the hordes.

Before he could decide, General Ridgeway arrived in-theatre and the morale of the battered Eighth Army began ballooning again, so MacArthur cancelled the use of nukes. The fact that the PVA had severely outrun its supply capability helped greatly in the stabilization of the front, and by February the starving Chinese forces had been forced to abandon their forward battle lines. The reconnaissance-in-force Ridgeway ordered turned into a general offensive as X Corps gradually advanced under UN air superiority. However, the tide turned again on February 25th when the Chinese launched their Fourth Stage Offensive. Fortunately it was soon blunted by UN units, now far better supplied, standing and fighting it out. Fighting at odds of 15 to 1, the UN forces held off the Chinese attacks, though they themselves sustained heavy casualties.

In early March, 1951, Ridgeway fired up Operation Killer on the entire front as his three Corps-class units moved forward in a coordinated push to kill/capture as many Chinese and PVA soldiers as possible. By March 25, via Operation Ripper, Seoul was back in UN hands, the pre-war population of 1,500,000 down to 200,000 and with severe food shortages. It was the fourth conquest of the city in a mere year, leaving it a total ruin. But it was on April 1 that Stalin agreed to loan Soviet Air Force units to the Chinese, ostensibly under the guise of selling the planes, just to get some experience for his pilots.

Things would have been nice if MacArthur could get his hands on Patton for the Korean War, but the guy was tied up supervising forces under Eisenhower in Europe. Still, the tanks named after the guy, the M48 Patton, had arrived, and along with British Centurion tanks they dominated the battlefield wherever their deployment was feasible. To counter the MiG-15 Fagot, MacArthur brought in masses of F-86 Sabre jets, and air superiority was quickly back in UN hands as Stalin could only send so many fighters without damaging his own air forces badly. The man also seemed to want to test his technology without going to war with the Allies, which was a relief for Truman.

April and May 1951 saw several things happening: the fifth major Chinese offensive, and the war coming to a stalemate at Line Kansas, just north of the 38th Parallel. In late April, Peng Dehuai had sent his deputy to brief Zhou Enlai in Beijing about the real situation at the front. To quote him "Our soldiers do not fear the enemy, they fear that they have nothing to eat, no bullets to shoot, and no trucks to carry them to the rear when they are wounded." Of course, he said this in Mandarin Chinese, but that was what he meant.

It took until June 1st, 1951 for the situation to escalate far enough for Hannah to be interested in entering the war. Maybe she should have joined earlier, but she didn't hold her foes to the same standards as her friends, hence she had only thought of the North Koreans' conduct as barbaric instead of inexcusable. However, the US troops were shooting civilian refugees just because of fear of infiltrators, hence she wasn't interested in supporting THEM per se, and by the time she chose to join the war, another situation had cropped up: Tibet.

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><p>AN: I hope I didn't skim too shallowly for everyone, this gives a basic political overview, and I know she's a bit hypocritical in demanding more of her allies than enemies, but the PVA conduct was by far the best overall of the belligerents. The POWs got rather better rations and supplies than the soldiers, though many still died of hunger and disease. The PVA was, to quote the Chinese description, "Millet Plus Rifle". They didn't even have RICE to eat‼‼

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	2. The Moral High Ground

A/N: The Divided House in this story is not just Korea, by the way, there are many other places.

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><p>Chapter 2: The Moral High Ground<p>

_1951_

Hannah welcomed the news of China planning on "liberating" Tibet, sent to her by Mao, and chose to release the video footage she had captured during her visit to the world. The sheep reacted predictably to the news and the UN met and discussed setting up a committee to investigate Tibetan societal systems under the hammering of countless lobbyists, many of which were spurred on by her Propaganda department. Unfortunately, Truman chose to blockade her by vetoing the committee and blocking media coverage in the US, in addition to turning the tables on her in terms of her actions against the South Korean military. He portrayed her as supporting the Chinese side of the war and not the UN side, which Canada should be supporting. That lost her a big chunk of popular support in the US and really, REALLY stung… though Mao was amiable toward her in their next secret meeting, after his troops entered Tibet on June 15th. Supposedly, the top nobility of Tibet and the top monks had been evacuated by a CIA team through the Himalayas, but Hannah couldn't be certain of that intel. Still, she told him one thing.

"Chairman, this war needs to end, it's just bleeding your country for nothing, the US doesn't even feel the defeats it's suffering, and even with my media support the world opinion still mildly disagrees" More specifically, it was about 40% approving, 45% disapproving and 15% undecided or not caring by that latest polls "with your liberation of Tibet. However, I must offer you a deal which will secure North Korea permanently against US aggression, secure your border, and allow North Korea to prosper instead of sinking beneath the yoke."

"Tell me about it." Mao said sarcastically through his translator.

"You know as well as I do that states under my stewardship are socialist instead of capitalist, I believe it would be good for everyone if North Korea became one of those states. Just look at Palestine, they have compulsory and free elementary education, for both boys and girls, they have laws for the equality of various groups, and they have laws curbing the influence of religion. I daresay that it is more ideally communist than the current regime in North Korea, with the corruption and all."

"The problem is that you fought on the Allies' side during the last war, how do we know you will not turn on us?" The translator conveyed.

Hannah snorted "You fought the Japanese too, you were on the Allies' side too, Chairman. I am offering a peaceful, acceptable solution to this ideological conflict, and I have helped you with the Tibet problem, otherwise the UN may well have gone to war with you over Tibet, moving through India, Burma and so on."

"We could negotiate a sort of peace, I plan on Zhou Enlai beginning talks sometime in July or August."

Hannah grimaced "What if the US side is unwilling to make concessions?"

"The we shall continue the war with all the might of the People's Republic of China."

"I am sorry to hear that, Chairman, things might change after I begin peacekeeping operations in North Korea. No doubt Truman will agree once I create the state in question, by force if need be. He can't afford the loss of face that would come with attacking my forces or Canada, since Britain or France would easily veto it if he tried to go through the UN and doing it on his own would probably bring a mutiny among most of his higher-echelon generals and a lot of his troops. And remember, Chairman, prisoners WILL be repatriated to countries of preference, they are not your slaves, this is a Communist state you are running here, not a feudalist one."

"You can threaten us all you want, Miss Shepard, but we will not give in."

"We shall see, great Chairman, we shall see." With that, they shook hands one last time and she left, her guards trailing out with her, boarding the Destroyer that was tied up in Shanghai harbour. The heavy cruiser, or that was what the other navies of the world classed it as, cast off, backed away from the pier, then swung out to leave the harbour.

Armistice negotiations began on July 10, 1951 at Kaesong. Li Kenong and Qiao Guanghua led the Chinese negotiation team, with Zhou Enlai directing the talks. These talks stagnated severely, and combat continued. By November 1951 the Chinese logistical problems had grown to be extremely severe and a series of meetings had to be called to discuss the mess. There they decided that construction of railways and airfields would be accelerated, to increase truck numbers, and to improve air defence by any means possible. These commitments did not do jack shit for the forces at the front, or at least, didn't do jack shit fast enough.

However, they were going to have even larger problems. By passing through the channel south of Hokkaido, the SI Pacific Fleet was out in force again, supplying themselves from freighters based in Sapporo, Hokkaido. Operation: Subsistence had begun, and with it perhaps the most alarming threat to Chinese morale and fighting spirit since the Opium Wars. Dozens of sorties of aircraft were flown from the carriers each day, parachuting hundreds of wooden crates filled with food to the PVA forces each day. It was ostensibly a gesture of goodwill, and the officers, after checking the food wasn't poisoned, distributed it to their men. After Bloody Ridge, Heartbreak Ridge, and the intense skirmishing constantly occurring in the parallel trench warfare lines, Chinese morale was low, and knowing that even an old friend of the Americans was dropping them food was heart-warming.

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><p><em>1952<em>

It was an expensive move that put SI finances in a deficit which was only made up for by the swelling consumption of consumer goods in the US and the rebuilt UK. However, it was a very calculated move, contrary to popular belief at the time and US protests (MacArthur had been fired by Truman, so the new guy in charge was quite a bit noisier). For now, Peng Dehuai made several trips to Beijing to brief Mao and Zhou about the difficulties supplying the front lines with even just ammunition, and the mounting casualty counts. He believed that the war would be protracted, and that neither side would attain victory in the near future. At a conference in Beijing on the 24th of February, Peng finally cracked. The Military Commission's government representatives kept on blabbering about how they were unable to meet the needs of the war.

"You have this and that problem… You should go to the front and see with your own eyes what food and clothing the soldiers have! Not to speak of the casualties! For what are they giving their lives? We have no aircraft. We have only a few guns. Transports are not protected. More and more soldiers are dying of starvation in the sectors where we aren't getting the Maple Leaf Crates. Can't you overcome some of your difficulties?" The general screeched. Zhou let him go ahead as the guy needed to vent somewhere and in his opinion was right to be furious "The Crates are subverting our men's fighting spirit, I am sure, but we are forced to rely on them whenever they are dropped into our positions just because the men are so hungry and cold that they'd mutiny if we stopped them from using the Crates! Shepard Industries is making a damned better impression on OUR troops than the central government is, do you not find that worrying?" The General began pacing back and forth "And don't tell me to shoot down the supply planes they're flying to give us food, my men need it and even the anti-aircraft crews, if there even are any, know not to fire on planes marked with the Red Maple Leaf."

The result was that when pamphlets became part of the food shipments, a few found themselves into the hands of the men despite any and all efforts by the political officers. The latter were too scared for their lives to confiscate the food crates period, but managed to get most of the pamphlets burnt in the fires built for warmth before those men able to read could read them and tell the others. Still, between March First and April First the news that the Red Maple Leaf was planning a thorough liberation of North Korea from "all imperialist influences" and creating a "fully socialist state of North Korea" made it throughout the ranks. It was not unlike how the Good News of Jesus made its way through the despairing mobs in a model of master psychology against the weak, downtrodden but hopeful masses. Incidentally, Hannah recorded in her logs that she had taken inspiration from the Bible, Koran, etc. for the move.

This meant that when SI forces, eight divisions' worth, 160,000 soldiers, landed a short distance north of Wonsan on June Fifth, they were greeted with the local PVA forces saluting and making way for them instead of shooting. The seizure of the city went peacefully, but for one incident when two parked Raider IIs and an APC were destroyed by American fighter-bombers while the crews were on duty indoors helping hand out some surplus food to starving locals. To quote the lieutenant in charge of Third Squad, 2nd Platoon, 1st Company, 1st Battalion, 1st Armoured Brigade, "These people _almost_ look like they just came out from concentration camps!" Then, finding his vehicle wrecked following the thunderous explosions from outside, the man had cursed while shaking his fist in the air at the retreating American planes "fucking Americans can't tell a neutral from an enemy…" Needless to say, Hannah radioed the US Korean Theatre Commander and expressed her displeasure at this.

However, the friendly reception of the locals soon changed as they rolled inland en masse with their armoured units streaming through the mountainous terrain. They were relying on Dozer Blades to forge a path most of the time and blew up any dangerous cliffs that seemed in danger of collapse that the planes had missed, then shovelled the wreckage aside. It was slow going, and within one day they'd come under attack from North Korean military units and PVA units ordered to the attack, units from areas that had not been reached by the Crate drops. The PVA units trapped among their now enemy in Wonsan and areas south of it were told to, by the uneasy people recruited as translators, "Just go home, and don't come back, we don't want to

fight you, we just want to prevent imperialist influences from prevailing North Korea, even Chinese influences. You can even hitch a ride in our trucks."

For obvious reasons, the Chinese resistance as they rolled west was half-hearted at best in areas where the Maple Leaf Crates were dropped. Several units outright stood by and let the SI units by—and were themselves left alone—before "straggling" north toward Chinese territory, ostensibly having been scattered in the confusion of being totally overrun by the tide of steel. The poor terrain did nothing to prevent the tanks from making their way doggedly up hills and ridges to shovel dirt and rocks ahead of them as they went over the top. Obviously, they avoided ridges reported to have steep drops on the other side, but otherwise all went well as the vehicles were going so damned slow and bombing runs had undermined most of the more dangerous ridges with armour-piercing bombs hurled horizontally into the cliff faces until they collapsed. The tactics had been adopted during the Japanese campaign after a Commonwealth Sherman tank was lost over a cliff, which was unfortunate and a real danger in armoured mountain warfare.

While the mountainous areas had received many Maple Leaf Crate drops to reduce the resistance, the plains and shorter hills had not, so the fighting brewed up as they met massed Chinese forces. Their recoilless rifles and Soviet-supplied first-generation rockets proved ineffective against appliqué-plated Raider IIs at anything more than knife-fighting range, much as how the tanks could withstand the first model of the "Ram" rocket launcher SI used. The fact that the Raider IIs were stocked with more machine-gun ammunition than they were supposed to be able to hold safely did not help the mostly unarmoured Chinese units that stood before them. The fact that they had a coaxial machine-gun instead of just a turret-top machine gun also helped greatly in reducing SI casualties.

They left a trail of destruction behind them as they moved at what was to them an astoundingly low speed, namely, covering the 200 kilometres from Wonsan to Namp'o, southwest of Pyongyang, in two whole _days_. At maximum speed on essentially level ground the Raider IIs could have covered the distance in about 3 hours, however, Korea was by no means level, especially in the east, and the tanks were forces to cautiously creep up hills before ploughing their way down the reverse slope, mostly following each other's tracks (and the shallow trenches they dug out) to leave relatively fewer trails to be seen from the air. This changed whenever resistance was encountered on flat ground to be four lines of tanks, staggered to achieve maximum firepower presentation and plough over the entire field of battle. As for hilly combat, things were a lot less ordered and typically consisted of bypassing strongholds whenever possible and burying bunkers whole with the Dozer Blades, and/or gassing them and pulling the unconscious Chinese troops out as prisoners.

The PVA did not become fully aware that they were being engaged by a new foe typically until the enemy was on top of them. However, the units that didn't open fire in time found themselves essentially ignored as the columns of tanks, APCs and trucks rolled by, all painted with the Maple Leaf with Bars logo. Most of the front-line forces of the PVA and North Korean Army had now been cut off from supply save for the air-drop missions flown from near Wonsan with food and pamphlets. Strangely, the SI Army with Hannah at its head advanced northward instead of sweeping south to encircle the PVA and North Koreans after receiving aerial resupply. Two Logistics Brigades and eight Aviation Brigades constituted a formidable ground force, as the Chinese and North Koreans ordered to assault the city discovered to their dismay, and having the two biggest and best battleships in the world on your side as artillery batteries didn't help.

The army did something far more insidious instead, hitting the Chinese-Korean border after a day of hacking through or speeding by Chinese units as they wheeled north. The hacking was for those units that fired first with anti-tank weaponry, while the speeding was reserved for units that did nothing or only fired small-arms at them. In the meantime, the Wonsan Perimeter held solid with Commonwealth troops arriving at the city port (hastily rebuilt to an extent) to help hold it. The eight divisions of forces had arrived and stopped at the Yalu River, and Hannah systematically ordered her troops to plough or blow up every railway, road, and bridge present while they moved northeast along the border. At Manp'o, as was arranged, she secured the area and received more airlifted supplies, with F-86s keeping the skies clear of MiGs so that her now obsolete F-1946s could fly in ammunition and some fuel, plus surplus food. Her scientists had predicted that a new generation of fighters would come out very soon, so she'd left R&D alone in terms of producing a better fighter.

They cut along the border until they reached Musan, then dashed to Najin for resupply by the ships that came in after the port was secured and cleared of mines. In a single movement, Hannah Shepard had damaged the PVA truck-capable supply lines in two long strips of land, killed 10% of the PVA's forces, and hopefully gotten the point across that she didn't want to fight but if it came down to it she would. Talks at Panmunjom should go much smoother now that she'd hurt her enemy and would continue hurting her enemy. However, those talks were not scheduled to start until late August, which meant she had time to beat up the Chinese some more so that they'd be more inclined to accept a peace.

However, for that she needed to stay mobile, and ideally get the SI Pacific Fleet Second Supply Flotilla to base itself in Tokuyama and supply the west side of the Korean Peninsula when she called for it. Supply pickups were arranged to be at least every Wednesday and Sunday at the Wonsan Perimeter, enough to operate continuously with how full the vehicles were generally stuffed of ammunition, supplies and extra fuel, and she planned to maraud around North Korea annihilating any opposing forces that barred her way until August, when she would settle down at the Wonsan Perimeter. She couldn't get into too much of a battle of attrition, or she would lose more forces than she could comfortably afford, hence, she was constantly on the offensive against the enemy, leapfrogging her divisions so the men and women could rest between battles, and basically making a big mess of the North Korean countryside. Then again, the un-worked land could really have used some breathing of the sort the Dozer blades were giving it as they crisscrossed the terrain.

Unaware of their impending supply problem thanks to communications being quite poor and the senior officers trying to keep morale up, in addition to SI forces mostly keeping to the east side of the peninsula for now, the Chinese forces engaged in the Battle of White Horse. Then they were forced into the Battle of Triangle Hill. Eighth Army was under Clark's command now, the same Clark that had so botched the Italian operation, and a man Hannah decidedly disliked for being a glory-seeker. Still, he seemed to have been chastised and was actually quite competent once one looked past the momentary irrationality back in Italy several years ago. While White Horse Hill was still being duelled over, he'd already authorized an assault on the Chinese-held Triangle Hill. Unfortunately, he had to invest double the original plan's troop count as maximum artillery and airborne support would not be available.

The Chinese had expected the main thrust to be mechanized infantry and armour directed at the valley 20km west of Triangle Hill, so the main formations of 15th Corps were stationed in that area. By Chinese nomenclature at the time, they used the term "Army" to describe a corps-sized unit. To compensate for far inferior firepower, the 15th Corps had built 9000 meters of tunnels, 50,000 meters of trenches, and 5000 meters of obstacles and minefields. On June 14, 1952, the American artillery had opened up to maximum fire after two days of bombing and shelling the Chinese positions. At 5 AM, the 280 guns and howitzers of IX Corps shifted their range so that the American infantry had a rolling barrage. It also disabled all wired and wireless Chinese communications in the area.

Closing range with the Chinese defences the Americans met grenades, Bangalore torpedoes, shaped charges and hand-thrown rocks, which were still dangerous despite being primitive. With their paths blocked the Americans had to shell their way up inch by inch to subdue resistance. Unfortunately the Chinese tunnel network allowed them to bring up large numbers of reinforcements, and the Americans didn't have flame tanks on hand to turn the tunnels into fire pits. The Americans had equipped their troops with ballistic vests but it didn't make much of a difference as they kept sustaining casualties. Still, the sheer UN firepower cost the Chinese Sniper Ridge, though a Chinese counterattack that fearlessly charged through a hail of artillery—Chinese AND American—managed to so exhaust the UN forces' ammunition that they were forced to withdraw.

The next day, the 15th, saw Hill 598 and Sandy Ridge captured, but Sniper Ridge was lost after recapture by South Korean forces. The 16th saw the UN forces gain control of the surface except the summit called Pike's Peak. The last of functioning communications had cost the Chinese their artillery support until the 18th of June. In the ensuing counterattacks, the Chinese suffered enough casualties to put 45th Division out of action. However, on the 25th, a PVA strategy meeting demanded Triangle Hill be secured regardless of cost. The thundering barrage on the 30th followed by Chinese victories over the next weeks finally prompted the UN side to open its mouth to a thus far not quite friendly party in the war: SI's eight divisions marauding up and down the eastern seaboard of North Korea blocking all overseas support from Russia and attacking Chinese supply convoys repeatedly, having finally ceased their food drop campaign in favour of blunt firepower.

Unfortunately, being far in the north and needing to resupply meant Hannah would need at least two days to reach the combat zone after she got the message on July 25, three days after it was sent. She would be too late to do anything but inflict another 30,000 casualties on the Chinese units and retake Jackson Heights, plus crush all resistance on Triangle Hill, employing sleeping gas to fumigate the tunnels. It would have been too cruel to bury them alive inside the tunnels, and impractical to leave them there until they surrendered of their own volition. The poor equipment the PVA had—namely the lack of gas masks—meant that the chemical warfare attack was successful in reducing casualties for all sides.

The PVA had concluded already that the attrition tactic was indeed effective against the UN and would become more aggressive both in informal armistice negotiations and on the battlefield. However, the eastern half of North Korea was well beyond its ability to hold, and was costing it troops, supplies and funding to even bother trying against a giant armoured hammer that could potentially come down anywhere at any time. The troops seemed to be sneaking around all over the place or sometimes brazenly crashing around like an angry bull, but appeared surprisingly well-rested to their enemies. The key to this was that only three divisions were actually on combat sortie at any one time, but that still meant upward of 1800 tanks, even more APCs, a lot of trucks, 300-plus howitzers, 15 rocket artillery pieces of 40 tubes each, and of course 960 attached planes dedicated to supply drops and close air support, with American F-86s flying escort for the old planes.

Losses in aircraft were not being replaced in the building programme at home simply as the R&D were developing armed helicopters for the Mobile Aviation Brigades, it was just not possible to build a good jet-powered warplane with small enough of an undercarriage to fit on the trucks. R&D was also building a larger, better-protected 10-ton truck that was supposed to be able to carry 10 more tons of goods and needed no more armour, whereas the old 5-ton trucks needed 3 tons of additional armour to be fully immune to heavy machine guns and could only carry 6 more tons of cargo when fully armoured. Still, the planes would be more than the trucks' carrying capacity if not in weight then in size. As for what she would do with the old planes, they were to be sold to museums and collectors, and the ones no one wanted stripped for parts and the engines put into high-end cars. If a 2000-horsepower engine could handle the rough-and-tumble of repeated carrier landings and be fully functional, then it could handle a racetrack without trouble. The cars were quite popular too, as the post-WWII youth were trying to relax and indulge in material goods much as what happened after WWI, and there were still the old rich families that bought up high-end goods like leeches sucking up society's blood.

However, that was beside the point, the point was that when she finally moved on the 27th of July to hammer the 15th Corps into the ground they were already relaxing a bit with no UN or SI activity in that part of the front. However, instead of the supply convoys, be they bike, on foot, or by truck, they were expecting from the road to P'yonggang from the west, they awoke to the sight of a great tide of about 2200 tanks. The front lines of staggered tanks were followed by what seemed to be an endless cloud of dust and the vague outlines of many, MANY more vehicles thundering down the road and over the countryside. The thin forests had been burnt to ashes days ago by firebombing missions flown from Wonsan, allowing the advance to throw up enough dust to seem even more imposing while moving slow enough to allow the vehicles to follow one another and stay organized in the dust. These days, only minimal air escort was given to the bombers, as the MiGs were being intercepted all the way up at MiG Alley, the border of China and North Korea.

Regardless of that fact, and the hopeless superiority of the enemy forces, the PVA 44th Division and 29th Division held their ground and did not rout. The enemy formation slowed down from a 45 km/h charge to a steady pace of 30 km/h as they started trading fire with what anti-tank weapons the Chinese had, firing at 1000 meters, but still being more accurate than the Chinese weapons thanks to infrared rangefinders copied and improved from those found on the Lion tank back in the last War. Coupled with the overwhelmingly larger number of guns, it was decisive. It would have been crushing even without the coordinates being radioed to the artillerymen who were 16 kilometres back with a heavy escort force of tanks and APCs, plus most of the howitzer ammo stored in the trucks. As 4 divisions had been committed to the attack, there were 432 howitzers on hand and 20 rocket artillery pieces.

The howitzers, both truck bed and grounded ones, fired in rippling volleys that shook the ground ten times a minute, the maximum possible firing rate, only used in close support and not in bombardments. They fired for one minute, then ceased fire, awaiting the next series of requested coordinates. It was a practiced routine, that fire support would be a one-minute volley of firing, and that the receiving end would give fifteen seconds after the last shells hit before actually charging the enemy lines, just to make sure no friendly fire incidents happened. If heavier support was required, then they only had to repeat the requests multiple times for the given coordinates within a short period of time, or request extended fire support, which meant a five-minute volley. As for the mathematics, the howitzer crews were not only schooled in calculations, but also practiced with ranges and desired inclinations, written down in the paper manuals for the general types of ranges and inclinations. Using topographical maps of the operational area, it was therefore very easy to measure the range between two sets of coordinates and angle the guns appropriately, in addition to getting the correct heading on the shells via protractor usage. Typically, they could fire the shells starting one minute after fire support was requested, less if the general area of the support was already known and dialled in, with calculations done and the numbers ready. The shells would arrive about half a minute later, depending on the range.

After this campaign securing this territory as hers, she turned east, maybe it would do the negotiations some good if they were overlooked from the nearby hills by 1200-ish (two divisions) of her tanks. The entire border zone was buffered by her own forces so that neither the PVA or the UN could attack each other directly, at least not en masse, because her units were intimidating to both sides. The PVA had agreed to the buffering while they licked their wounds, as long as SI didn't conduct any offensives while negotiations were beginning or ongoing. The UN forces agreed to the conditions as the only ones getting really hurt were the North Koreans and Chinese in the arrangement, besides, they could use a break.

* * *

><p><em>Panmunjom, August 1952<em>

Hannah Shepard sent an old friend of hers to the negotiations, Admiral Hackett, SI CINCLANT, since he didn't get much to do now that peace in the Atlantic reigned, other than supervising and reviewing shipping contracts Jane had signed off on. The talks went something like this:

Hackett began by repeating what Hannah had instructed him to say "We wish only to establish a stable buffer state between the UN interests in South Korea and Chinese territory. Our offer is as follows: The state of North Korea will be rebuilt as a client state of Shepard Industries, with the same military protection rights and privileges as all other SI client states" so far that was just the State of Palestine, which was doing well for itself but was experiencing some friction from neighbours. "in addition to the legal and socio-political terms that come with client-state status. We would like to add to this offer of client state status to North Korea, in that United Nations forces will not be allowed into North Korea regardless of all else without agreement from both SI and China. We believe this would form a stable, non-aligned buffer state between the US-led United Nations forces and the People's Republic of China, which is beneficial for all sides to calm down and think things over. If this is agreed upon, SI will immediately cease all hostilities with forces of the People's Volunteer Army and take over administration of North Korea in the interim while elections are run, a civil government set up, and the damage of the war is at least cleared away if not repaired."

"Your offer of a buffer state seems agreeable." The Chinese negotiator had been instructed by Mao and Zhou personally that he was allowed to make concessions to SI, as long as it kept North Korea from the US and UN side. With the recent tension between SI and the US over Tibet, having them administrate the region was an option he was allowed to agree to. "As long as the ban on UN forces is enforced, then we are able to agree on that aspect. However, we need to hammer out the treatment of prisoners."

"Where they go is their own free choice, it is demanded by socialism that each person has the right of self-determination, as there is no society without the combination of masses of individuals. The commune cannot make a choice without the majority of the commune making that choice, and no one in the commune can be forced into a choice if you are practicing true communism. Unless you are not practicing true communism, you will allow the prisoners of war choice." Hackett pressed hard and fast, his own translator firing things off in the same intense, demanding tone he was using.

Arguing with the core values of one's own ideology in an ideological struggle simply did not work very well, hence the Chinese party resorted to "We are infinitely more communist than your imperialism and colonialism, displayed by your Grand Marshal" in Chinese, that was the term that translated to Generalissimo in English " and her tendencies to acquire client states."

Hackett snorted derisively "You are doing worse than we are, attempting to acquire North Korea as your own client state, and not even guaranteeing a socialist democracy for it, unlike what we are doing. But still, you are the true imperialist if you are unwilling or too afraid to allow your people to make their own choices. There is no society without individuals, you would do well to remember that."

The South Korean party members had finally decided to speak while the American ones were simply standing by and watching them fight it out "This ideological debate is accomplishing nothing, we demand the reunification of the peninsula under a single government."

"No, and my Generalissimo made this perfectly clear, your Syngman Rhee is unworthy of running a small city with the tyrannical methods of his rule, including countless atrocities, however, we will not punish him directly. All he has to understand is that a tyrant will never be allowed to fulfill his ambitions."

The Chinese party actually applauded this once the translator got the point across and the American rolled his eyes. The Chinese spoke next "Well spoken, Admiral, we can see why the Chairman respects your Grand Marshal so much. We would agree to your offer, and your idea of choice… I am allowed to make that concession, but only if there is a trial period between the armistice and the prisoners being sent to where they wish to go."

Hackett inclined his head in a sort of head-bow of respect "Thank you, honourable sir. We are willing to make a concession in return, certain districts north of Najin, this area" He pointed it out on the map that made up the centerpiece of the table "will be ceded to the People's Republic of China. Those who wish to come to our North Korea can do so, those who wish to join the PRC can stay where they are. I am sure the Chairman will be very happy to gain a port on the Sea of Japan, although it will not be very useful so long as relations remain hostile between the Allies and China."

The American present had listened with growing alarm, and interjected here to ask for an intermission, during which he yanked Hackett aside to whisper furiously at him. "We will not allow North Korean territory to be ceded to China! Do you realize what you are doing Admiral? Does Shepard know what she is doing? She is allowing China to expand and assert its power over more territory, surely an undesirable outcome for all of us."

Hackett had a sudden flashback to Hannah's briefing regarding dealing with such situations, she had told him "Like the cave of documents on Jeju Island, if you have a plausible excuse, some blood already spilt that you can use to justify it, and what seems to be the moral high ground, the world will be perfectly mollified as long as you can bullshit your way past them. Of course, there are some times when it's a matter of 'we were left with no other options' like what happened in Japan" at that she looked down at the floor in shame and bit on her bottom lip for a moment before shaking her head and looking back at him "However, do not spill blood just for that, it's not right, and also, the bullshitting does not apply to politicians unless you corner them into looking unreasonable if they don't agree with you. Don't let them change the topic, and keep pressing, only change in a direction favourable to you, and you'll go far, my trusted friend."

His response to the American was therefore a hissed "How easy is it to blockade a tiny stretch of coast compared to all of North Korea's coastline? Obviously Hannah isn't going to get the Chinese Army have free access to North Korea, if we don't do this, North Korea could be a Chinese client state period, and their coast might as well be Chinese. I'm minimizing any and all damage from our concessions here, help me out a little!"

"Yeah, sure, Admiral, do you take me for a fool?"

"Now that you mention it, the fact that you prefer Chinese access to all North Korea, as obviously South Korea doesn't have the power to unify the peninsula and China will not stand for the destruction of North Korea, instead of a small piece of coast, does sound astoundingly foolish. Your President wants a limited war, so there is no option of simply beating the shit out of the Chinese. Face it, Mister, this is the best deal you're going to get. It ensures a democratic North Korea, a counterweight for South Korea if it becomes an annoyance, and secures Chinese cooperation. The North Koreans cannot but listen to the Chinese now that they are themselves weak, so we need really only cater to the Chinese, then any Korean resistance can be crushed into the dirt."

"What if they use guerilla tactics?"

"Well, after giving them some time to leave, we will deal with their hideouts the way we always have… a thorough plough-over by Raider IIs will give the soil some breathing room and root them out."

The break ended, and they all settled back into their seats at the negotiating table.

"Still, I can't agree on the behalf of the United Nations, unless we can change the boundaries a bit to give more land to the South Koreans."

"They've already made territorial gains since the start of the war, with all due respect, Jeju Island has already held a referendum on the island, independent of any external influence, that they wish to become an SI client region, even if they have to be counted as part of North Korea. Do you know what they said?" Hackett questioned the South Korean party, who shook their heads. "They said 'give us liberty or give us death', you have no moral high ground, Republic of Korea, it would be wise not to push too far. Jeju can join us when and if it likes, but with this agreement we are agreeing that for the next ten years the island will not become part of the Shepard Industries client state of North Korea."

The American shrugged "Be that as it may, we cannot agree to these terms, Admiral Hackett."

"We cannot accept either." The South Koreans chimed in.

Hackett pulled out the last card Hannah gave him "Very well, but be warned that we will no longer directly intervene with PVA activity except in areas declared as occupied by us. No longer shall any side receive air-drops of food, water and medication from us, no longer shall our forces or services be available for hiring by the UN. We have no desire to shed more blood than is absolutely necessary."

Soon, i.e. many days, after more, to quote Hackett, "useless babbling" between the sides, with the concluding pleasantries the negotiations FINALLY dissolved. However, Hackett spoke with Peng Dehuai personally as their cars drove alongside each other away to the north. "General, ready your forces to retake the positions we currently occupy along the front, or prepare for a UN offensive along those positions. I am sorry I had to push you out of those positions, but at least this way you will not be so surprised when the UN forces attack you right after negotiations end."

The UN attack could not, for sake of appearances, be underway until SI forces allowed PVA troops to pass by them, as SI was just too popular among the big UN countries. Namely this meant being hailed as liberators and heroes in the British Isles, Spain and France, in addition to being hugely popular in Canada and to a lesser extent America. What was not immediately obvious to the UN troops was that instead of simply turning north all along the line, the SI units had turned north, moved a few kilometers, then all headed east with their Dozer Blades raised. Thus they left only tracks, not trenches, as they moved back toward the northeast half of North Korea which was formally designated as SI Occupied. The border skirmishes in the north and west borders of the territory had died down in the days before the negotiations, and would likely remain low as the two powers had come to an agreement.

Of course, that didn't mean either side shirked patrolling the border. Incidentally, it was found that the infrared sights of the A-T-1945C (Raider IIC by common reference) were quite useful for seeing enemy movements in the dark, so a number of these, plus trucks, stood relatively silent vigil over the border. The tanks' systems were powered by small gasoline generators hooked up to the vehicular power grid instead of the main engines' attached dynamos, with the result that it was quiet outside the vehicle, but the air circulation system of the tanks had to be amped up from the usual setting. Fortunately, the generators were an SI design and thus had a very high standard air-to-fuel ratio for lower soot and toxic exhaust gases, so the crews got by.

Still, it was a rude shock to the US and UN when they found Triangle Hill and Jackson Heights in Chinese hands within five days after the end of negotiations. The SI response was that "We declared the north-eastern part of North Korea occupied, we never said shit about the west side, if you're too stupid to realize it, too bad." The information had gone out in major newspapers across the world long ago, when she'd first declared her zone of occupation and then with the article the breaking up of negotiations. Needless to say, Truman was not happy with the perceived backstabbing and the hit it gave his popularity for being incompetent in the conduct of the war. However, his popularity was already low enough, and with the upcoming elections, he had better things to do i.e. trying to make his party win against Eisenhower.

Skirmishing continued over the next weeks, but overall, All was Quiet on the Western Front. Or at least all was quiet until the newest crisis popped up: A series of riots and general unrest in the State of Palestine had occurred, and the intel reached Hannah three days after the riots started on October 15, 1952. It seemed to have been induced by US CIA agents, or so Hannah believed. She predicted the riots would calm down within several days, and was surprised to find out a few days later that they weren't settling down.

* * *

><p>AN: I'm mashing together the Arab-Israeli conflicts to a few shorter ones. Note that A/N's are very different from notes and callouts from my fictional archivists!

* * *

><p><em>Late October-November, 1952<em>

The two Logistics Brigades stationed in Palestine to help regulate the flow of supplies—used in the building of new infrastructure—and act as customs officers of sorts were reporting increasing aggression from the Jewish population where they had the majority, which was most of Palestine as she'd let them immigrate rather freely. That turned out now to be a mistake, and she was paying for it. No doubt it was catalyzed by the Americans but she was still the one paying, and paying dearly, for it. Her first client state seemed to be brewing up, and if that went, then no more would follow, which meant she had to take the solution that offered the least casualties to all sides. Apparently the UN was contemplating making the fully secular State of Palestine into two separate states, one Jewish and one Arab-affiliated and Muslim. The Jews were for it, because they felt that it would be the only guarantee to security after the horrors of the Holocaust. The Arab majority in Palestine strongly opposed it, favouring peaceful coexistence and the benefits they were getting from the state, but were being attacked by the Zionists.

In Hannah's opinion, the Jews were being paranoid. Just because everyone else had been asinine to them didn't mean she would be… but she didn't believe they would listen, which forced her hand. She would have to leave the Korean situation under the command of Admiral Hackett—the man was qualified in both land and naval command, just as she demanded of all her major commanders—as Far East Theatre Commander, and head to Israel to take care of the situation there. However, this COULD be a UN ploy to draw her away from Korea. Still, she believed Hackett, the assorted Brigadiers and the few Major Generals in-theatre would be competent enough to more than get the job done. Hence she boarded the SI Third Carrier Task Force, consisting of one Medium Carrier—here the _British__Columbia_—and two Light Carriers. The old Escort Carriers had been modified into more of an amphibious assault role once she realized they were too small to fly the warplanes of the future off of their decks. Still, they could function as floating warehouses and hospitals better than a freighter could, right?

She had five Carrier Task Forces under her command. Task Forces One through Three were based in Vancouver, though Three had been deployed temporarily supply-wise to Sapporo and spent its time nowadays in the Sea of Japan. One and Two had been with it for some time during the last winter, helping drop food to the PVA to improve relations and to reduce Chinese fighting spirit toward SI forces. Two was due to arrive any day now, with the repaired _Quebec_, no long crewed by solely French-speaking or even bilingual personnel. Task Forces Four and Five were in the Atlantic, but Hannah planned on taking Task Force Three on a long cruise south of India, through the Red Sea and recently widened Suez Canal, and finally reach the coast of Palestine.

She also ordered Ninth and Tenth Divisions to move out from Germany and head down to Palestine by passing through the friendly states of the Balkans. The Soviets had Poland and Romania in their spheres of influence now, so they couldn't pass through those countries, but Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey were still good for manoeuvring, despite the Greek Civil War raging these days. Hence they could take trains through to the southern coast of Turkey, as Syria wasn't too friendly at the moment, and then board the freighters of Task Force Three to land upon the Palestinian beaches, as the ports represented, in Hannah's opinion, kill-zones.

It took until October 25 for Hannah to reach the southern tip of India, and she received new and more alarming intel. The commanding Major General of the Ninth and Tenth Divisions sent her an urgent message regarding Jordan, Syria and Iraqi forces (A/N: Lebanon is part of the State of Palestine here) invading Palestine from all directions. They were using new tanks obtained from the Soviets, thickly-armoured vehicles equipped with a 105mm cannon plus two machine-guns, one on top of the turret and one coaxial. That was unfortunate… Korea represented a Campaign, in that the tactical environment, once one pulled out all one's ingenuity, was not at all challenging, whereas this new conflict, this "Zionist-Arab Palestine Conflict" as it was being trumpeted in newspapers everywhere?

This was no mere Battle or Campaign, this was WAR!

* * *

><p>AN: You didn't think Korea was it for divided houses, did you?


	3. Big Red Hardware

A/N: I never rate M without smut/rape (completely different to me, though on one or two occasions I'll subject our poor boys to the latter…). Language and violence, no matter how bad, will only earn a T rating. Just putting that out there (again).

I have just heard of the ME 3: Galaxy At War part of ME 3, and I must state that hell, it's about time they made things more sophisticated. When can we expect a full-scale RTS spin-off? Total War or Hearts of Iron style, except you CAN construct on the tactical battlefield, like in C&C 3 KW's Conquer the World Campaigns, and with semi-randomly generated maps only restricted by planetary lighting of the time (1 galactic standard hour turns, like in Hearts of Iron III), weather probability (pretty easy to establish with some scripting of each planet's weather zones) and continental outlines. Obviously, very few small islands will be available, but I think it would be worth it to play such a grand game, with all the factions choose-able. Standard Campaign is fighting off the Reaper invasion, but Free For All? "Now it gets fun!" (Tali, ME 1)

* * *

><p>Chapter 3: Big Red Hardware<p>

_Late Autumn, 1952_

Hannah Shepard pored over the detailed map of the State of Palestine, checking her two Divisions' progress against the Jordan, Egyptian and Iraqi Armies, and just how badly knocked out Syria was. She was wondering how this came to be. There had been no pre-emptive symptoms of unrest in her first and thus far only Client State. Indeed, crime rates had been dropping constantly ever since the start of the country. In the first two months, soldiers patrolling the streets in squads would do everything from firefighting to chasing down muggers or removing cats from trees. The population had seemed reasonably happy with getting a say in who ran the country back during the first and second elections, held in March 1948 and April 1952 respectively. The government was competent and not really corrupt if her more unsavoury contacts' information was accurate, and nationalism was being suppressed, though national pride was not. Perhaps that had something to do with it, national pride.

She'd supplied all the possible ingredients for happiness that she could think of: a thin layer of job protection, primarily electoral democracy, adequate civil liberties, moderate unemployment benefits, low business start-up costs, stable telecommunication lines, massive healthcare investments, clean water, stable food supplies, and universal education plus R&D investments. The first point allowed elimination of incompetence, the second a sense of empowerment and control, the third allowed freedom of mobility and such, including absolute protection from random killings. The fourth point gave a safety net for people out of work and allowed them to apply for schooling funding so that they could be educated better, but prevented lazy bums from getting away with it. The low business start-up costs encouraged entrepreneurialism and productivity, and stable telecommunication lines brought a degree of connectedness unmatched in the history of the region. The healthcare system had improved the lives of inhabitants by a huge margin—so much that the Arabs supported the SI-backed regime en masse—and the clean water plus plentiful food made a combination that wasn't easy to resist. There wasn't any resistance to mobilizing local researchers and intellectuals either.

The one bit hitch was with the mandatory universal education system. In the beginning, there had been some honour killings of women who attended the system. The investigations had been long and thorough, and finally uncovered the problem, with the result that the populace had been summoned to massive lectures and reminded of just who built and ran the damned country. They were reminded that if the British had been allowed to take care of the mess they'd still be without all the securities and benefits they had now and probably be set upon each other like fighting dogs by another colonial power. That had been in 1949, when Hannah was having time off before the Korean War (she didn't spend all her time in Japan, you know) and heard of the situation. Needless to say, there were some grumbles of discontent but the Arabs got the point. She'd waited until they were so used to the amenities she offered that they acknowledged her as their head of state willingly. The number of cases of murders of young women and girls spiked briefly after her visit, then plummeted.

The plummet was because her troops burnt out, literally burnt out, a group of extremists during one of their meetings. Incidentally, they turned out to be a mixed bag of extremist Christians and Muslims, along with a handful of members of other religious affiliations, the cooperation was odd except for the fact that they collectively didn't believe women should be educated. Amazingly, there were actually some brainwashed women in the group (these had been considered too damaged to salvage). They'd been meeting in an old warehouse when the troops had closed in and tried to arrest them. It was thanks to being cautious and yelling over a megaphone from outside (they'd done recon of the building beforehand, so knew there were no escape tunnels) that none of the troops lost more than an ear from a bullet clipping the woman in question's head. Hiding and snorkelling in a water-filled ditch near the building REALLY helped the Raider II and the APCs involved in the operation stay hidden… They'd been forced to torch the building, drag the bodies out, count them (they'd had infantry in the APCs), then move the rubble aside to ensure they had everyone or at least parts of everyone. The operation had begun just as the meeting was ending, so they knew they had everyone.

Raider IIs may have been feared war machines in many countries of the world, but in the state of Palestine back in the peaceful days they'd been the no-nonsense pioneers of public infrastructure, helping in the laying of sewage pipes, water mains, etc. in the form of ploughing trenches to lay the pipes. Machinery was already available for repairing the things when needed, but it would be another several years before the first major repairs would be needed. There had been basically no resistance to female education after the burn-out, since most of the people were flexible enough to adapt and adopt the ways she insisted on enforcing in exchange for the benefits of being a client state, such as what they had experienced over the past years, namely military support and disaster relief. The two Logistics Brigades stationed in the country both helped keep law and order on occasion and handled the distribution of large amounts of relief food sent during the drought and famine of 1950, resulting in them being hugely popular in most areas.

Now they had nailed the invading armies down with their own armoured columns, fed by truck convoys, until further reinforcements could arrive to beat them back decisively. The soldiers of the State of Palestine Self-Defence Force had to do very little other than holding actions on the first day of the war, before they were ordered to withdraw under darkness. Even in the air, two Aviation Brigades transferred over after Second Aviation Division was broken up handily out-fought the old Soviet Yak-9s with their V-F-1946Cs. They also dealt with internal security with their own "self-defence" armoured and supply forces while the Logistics Brigades were bearing the brunt of the enemy attack. The only Brigade type with more tanks issued was an Armoured Brigade, since Logistics Brigades needed to escort supply convoys through potentially hostile territory and hold the supply lines until relieved, or so doctrine suggested.

It was being put to the test, and found very satisfactory if the hundreds of smoking hulks of so-called "Heavy Tanks" near the northern and eastern borders of the State of Palestine were any indication. Mohaupt's research teams had really come through with advances in HEAT shell technology… and the improved armour and lower profile of the Raider IIC prevented the enemy from getting more than a mere handful of kills. They were obviously inexperienced tankers, exposing themselves for easy flank kill shots, not manoeuvring in large, organized sweeping lines, moving along in single file or a thin column… you name it, they had it.

The first engagement was near the border to the west of the town of Tripoli (not to be confused with the African one) that sat north, along the coast, from one of the three provincial capitals of Palestine, namely the city of Beirut. The camouflaged border outposts had sent their warnings and hunkered down (literally) to near-invisibility from land or air to wait the invasion out. A column dispatched to investigate the invasion, a company of eighteen Raider II tanks, all upgraded/reassembled to C standard with three fitted with flamethrowers, and two APCs detected the enemy first and was given permission to engage. They had sighted at least thirty, but fewer than fifty of the new and bulky Soviet tanks, which on the spot the troops dubbed "Heavy Tanks" because of their slow speed.

First Company, Second Battalion, Fifth Logistics Brigade deployed hull-down on the reverse slope of a ridge overlooking the road the enemy was following _to __the __lane_ as far as trucks went, the tanks were moving in SINGLE FILE! Then they sighted in their guns along the road, about 800 meters away, and prepared for battle, by radio silence and sharing jokes about how the Syrians were acting like a herd of sheep led to the slaughter. Of course, most of the men were nervous, but they took solace in the fact that they had a solid cadre of capable officers and non-coms drawn from the regular front-line units SI fielded. This was coupled with being experienced with their vehicles (practicing by manoeuvring around construction sites made sure they didn't get rusty, and things falling on the top of the hull and pinging off was almost combat-like but wasn't as costly to simulate, and dozer blade practice…) and the confidence that the Raider IIC was among the most advanced tanks in the world. Only two battalions of Fifth Logistics had been deployed into this area, with the Third and Fourth battalions thrown into the line against Egypt that very morning just in case. In other words, 2000 troops were pitted against each invading country's armies while 8000 more flew air support and held the unrest in the rear down.

On October 28, 1952, the first real shots of the war were fired as the tanks, having called their targets long before in terms of which tanks firing on which enemy vehicles, opened fire with a bark from the company commander, a Major by SI ranks. The Syrians had already invaded and fired their weapons on several occasions, so it was only right that they have first strike this time. Thanks to the faulty dispositions of the slow Syrian tanks they took direct flank shots in the first volley, disabling or destroying 15 tanks with 18 shells fired. The other tanks swivelled their turrets in the direction of the attack instead of turning their entire hulls right away, to present an angle of 45-60 degrees to the road to give better protection both on the sides and against enemies that might be hiding directly ahead of them. This meant the next volley nailed another 13 tanks cleanly and killed two messily, then scored a final kill with one tank's turret, blown off in a catastrophic kill, falling back down onto another tank and smashing it hard enough to wreck it.

The first return volley from the Syrians went completely wide even while the APCs were hammering out shells into the truck convoy following the armour. The current standard 40mm APHE shells punched into the vehicles hard, firing in 5-round bursts of explosions and armour penetration where applicable. Soldiers jumped out of their trucks and threw themselves prone on the ground as their vehicles and supplies brewed up and shrapnel flew around them. The second return volley was much more accurate, but they still resulted in only a few gouges to the armour of the Raider IIs after clipping the tops of the ridge and shedding some kinetic energy.

The third volley fired by the Raider IIs found the front glacis plates of the Soviet-made tanks, the vehicles having (finally) turned 90 degrees. It would have been foolish of them, but for the fact that the Major had not stationed any tanks in defilade down the road, not expecting this foolish and non-mathematical move. The soldiers had all been shown mathematically and by a model that the maximum armour coverage on all sides facing the enemy was reached not by pointing your vehicle AT them but somewhat off the inbound rounds' axis. Hence the Major, not being experienced enough at armoured warfare to expect enemy stupidity, failed to expect it. Still, the Soviet tanks had enough concentrated frontal armour to survive the shells with large scars.

The next volley cost the SI defenders, despite pushing up dirt ramparts, one Raider II when a 105mm shell sheared into the ring of the turret and ripped it off. It, and chunks of the rapidly dying or already dead crew, spun away to land many meters behind the burning hulk, smashing edge-on into the grassland and ploughing into the soil before coming to a stop. In return, the Heavy Tanks began dying one after another as the Raider IIs immediately adopted Two-By-Two Tank Combat tactics from the left on a barked order from the Major in charge, namely that two friendly tanks would fire on each enemy tank, and that the tanks of odd-numbered squads would get odd-numbered tanks and even-numbered quads would get even-numbered tanks counting from the heads of the column, whichever was arranged to be the front. In this case, it was obvious, and the first eight surviving Heavy Tanks went up in great pyres under a hammering of shells to their already weakened armour. Two tanks had targeted the wrong vehicle and thus one of the few Heavy Tanks then still fully intact had taken four HEAT shells one after another to its front glacis, cracking it in a triangle to shatter inward on the last hit and tear the inside of the vehicle apart. Fuel and ammunition cooked off and the explosion went the way it had come from, exploding out of the front end of the hull.

The Raider IIs backed up after the second volley and the loss of another of their number when a 105mm shell had pierced the front of the turret after two hit the same area within that one volley. They settled near the bottom of the slope behind the ridge, dug in and waited for their enemies to come over the ridge. As soon as the second did, a 95mm shell to the thin underbelly stopped it cold and sent the turret flying back toward the road on a plume of fire, though it didn't reach the road. The first was killed at the same time, helping prevent the others from backing up quite in time before they lurched over the hill and the Raider IIs fired on whichever ones occupied whichever space they were aiming at for the moment. The few remaining Heavy Tanks went over the top anyways, and suddenly the two groups of tanks were trading fire at short, but no longer point-blank, ranges (the Raider IIs had pulled back about 400 meters to mitigate any advantage the Syrians could get from an angle of depression against their front armour). Both types of vehicles proved marginally effective against each other, three or four of the Soviet-made 105mm shells hitting the same general area on a Raider II being needed to break through, and two 95mm shells being able to kill a Heavy Tank by hitting the same general area on its forward armour. However, the acute discrepancy in accuracy, experience, and of course the difference of 3.5 versus 2 meant that the Syrian force was utterly finished long before the SI force was. The SI company was down six tanks, a third of its tank strength, and its APCs had been forced to participate from behind covered ramparts with only their rail-mounted Ram II rockets being effective at all against the Soviet-made tanks.

The infantry that had been in the trucks surrendered or routed after the Raider IIs reached the ridge, looked with their sights for anti-tank weapons, then thundered over the top, shearing off quite a bit of the dirt with their dozers to absorb damage coming from in front of them just in case. They hadn't seen any anti-tank guns, but that wasn't a guarantee there were none. This time doctrine proved paranoid, but maybe next time? Anyhow, the engagement was considered to be a tactical draw, as the SI units in the country had far fewer Main Battle Tanks available than the Arab countries by all estimates (these estimates were later found to be inaccurate).

* * *

><p>In other news, Hannah was now actively on the tail of the scientists to produce a newer, better tank instead of focusing so much on the safety and durability aspects of consumer goods. Certainly, this meant a slowdown of incomings funds, but she had enough money on hand and in the form of smart investments (real funds, she didn't do debt buying since those were always hazardous in her opinion) to sustain business for the next several years despite the vast numbers of soldiers and researchers she employed. There was also the minor problem of "Who the flying fuck owned the subs that fired a volley of torpedoes at my carrier in the Indian Ocean?" She had her suspicions, but…<p>

Indeed, Hannah's task force had come under attack from three subs in the Indian Ocean, shortly after she passed the tip of India. The convoy had been running more or less silent for the whole trip. The main reason was that sonar would only attract attention from underwater targets, and was only really useful when hunting. The lights were also out and surface-search radar only turned on intermittently so as to not give away the convoy's location. Triangulation was a bitch to those on the receiving end… and so were the subs (bitches, that is) that opened fire in the dead of night on the 26th of October. The first warning the convoy had was the bioluminescence brought on in the thick night in the wake of the torpedoes before the alarms went out and capital ships swerved to port as one (the initial capital ship reaction to a surprise attack was always pre-arranged before departure) and dropped their torpedo skirts into the water. The escorts were manoeuvring individually, lights active and stabbing into the night for targets, radars firing up even while a series of explosions tore what remained of the silence apart.

The _British __Columbia_ had taken two torpedoes near the bow on the port side, and was beginning to take on a small amount of water even with the torpedo skirts holding most of the damage away from the hull plating. Its two escorting Destroyers, the _Vancouver_ and _Victoria_, also took damage in the form of one torpedo amidships each. Of the eighteen torpedoes, only one more found its mark, putting a small hole near the stern of a Destroyer but fortunately not disabling anything important. The Frigates and Corvettes all turned on their sonar at once a few moments after the explosions, and the searchlights lit up the water.

One conning tower was detected, part of the last sub to begin its dive, and it was immolated by a mass of shells, of 300, 200 and 100mm calibres, while the sub fired its four stern torpedo tubes back in defiance even while it broke up and sank with all hands. The other two subs involved were hunted through the night by pairs of Corvettes and occasionally a Frigate, one was sunk after diving deep "three hours before it was day", and the second was damaged at dawn, before the corvettes communicated to it via hydrophone "your propulsion is damaged, your systems are failing, surrender and we'll let you all live." They got the response of a volley of four torpedoes from the stern of the sub that the nimble ships dodged easily, as they were moving around at a good distance from the damaged but still submerged sub. The final word was had by the attack boats, deployed by the corvettes and circling the sub up close, dropping all their depth charges in neat rows across the sub. It ended with the sound of breaking-up noises in the sonar operators' headphones and Hannah's demands to identify the attackers.

Hannah and her ASW-trained sailors had a good idea of who the attack was by, since only one faction routinely built lots of attack subs equipped with ten torpedo tubes, six bow and four stern—AMERICA. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, no flags or clear identification of the attackers were found and no proof would be located for many decades. However, it was eventually found many years later that Truman had authorized the strike to "deal with that interfering bitch before she gets too out of hand and gets in the way of American interests any further". Unfortunately for him, and fortunately for the survival of the human race, his spec ops units mostly literally missed the boat on this one, and he couldn't do it openly as it would unite the world against his country. It might also cause a mutiny, of the "fuck your orders" variety instead of an uprising, in much of America's Army because she was so popularly supported even after the Tibet debacle.

The result was that the entire convoy was on high alert and actually deployed some troops to "visit" the British-held Suez Canal to secure it, then picked them up at the other end. Sure, Egypt was not on the offensive against Palestine yet, but it might happen soon. With the Syrian Army involved with invading Palestine, it was perfectly doable to thunder straight south with the might of Ninth and Tenth Divisions into Syria. She gave the needed orders to do so, based as they were in southern Turkey, but met resistance from the Turks, who insisted that any invasion not be launched from their soil. She agreed, not wishing to offend them, and picked them up… then sailed south, landing them at the port town of Tripoli, or at least the trucks. The tanks and APCs got their tracks and hulls wet by sloshing ashore from the freighters that had been dedicated to them. Thus a steel fist was fully formed by the early morning of November 1, ready to smash in the face of the Syrian regime with a single coiled punch.

The Syrians were overjoyed when the stiff armoured resistance the enemy was giving gave way to allow them to storm into a bunch of abandoned villages which had been cleared of all goods. The trucks of the Logistics Brigades had been astoundingly useful for evacuations of personnel and their worldly goods, carrying people and crates of their stuff (old food shipping crates that had been recycled for storage work) to the core areas of Palestine. There the Aviation Brigades were digging in along with the Palestinian Self-Defence Force troops (they helped the PSDF a LOT). Of course, the Syrians stopped being happy to any degree when all 20,000 men of their invasion force met a gigantic armoured hammer that outnumbered them more than 1.5 to 1 in personnel, and something on the order of 6 to 1 in total available tanks. The force destroyed by a mere company in the opening battles using superior tactics and effective firepower had been a major component of the Syrian armoured forces, which were now facing two DIVISIONS that appeared as if out of Houdini's hat.

They were finished essentially as soon as they were encircled thanks to the the armoured hand closing on them, and the remnants surrendered only days later to the Mechanized Brigade left behind to watch the tatted remnants of the encircled units. By that time Syria had been totally pounded into the dirt, its main reserve units searched out and destroyed as hunter-killer companies of armour ranged the country searching out and destroying significant resistance wherever offered. In other words, by the end of the third day Syria was without a single anti-tank gun, tank or aircraft as the Syrian Air Force was finally swarmed on the ground and in the air, destroyed in mere hours. It was not unlike the blitzkrieg into Poland back in World War Two, thirteen years prior, but was much, MUCH faster. Still, SI was sustaining personnel losses (death or debilitation) at a ratio of barely fifty to one, which was far too expensive in Hannah's opinion and signalled the urgent need for a new and better tank, one able to shrug off the hammer-blows of precise (but not very accurate) 105mm guns like they were nothing, unlike the Raider IIC that could only take three hits to the same general area of the plating. The original Raider II would have been evenly matched against the Heavy Tanks, but the IIC was still a bit better. She wanted a bigger edge, a bigger margin of error, a better ability to summon overwhelming armoured superiority in an operational area before it could be summoned against her.

For now, she would have to make do with the Raider IIC, and she did a decent job of it, mopping up the entire Syrian Army's offensive capacity within two days, essentially marauding through the whole country in a clean sweep. Finally, it was time to cut the head off the snake, and she gathered all of Ninth Division around Damascus, which had been bypassed during the offensive, other than a sort of Cantabrian Circle of tanks and APCs firing at Syrian armour inside the city and anything that shot back with large enough calibre (or explosions) to seem like a threat. Finally, after moving into the area under cover of night, Hannah ordered her forces to commence maximum bombardment of the government district of the city. She only had 216 of her old but reliable 100mm howitzers and 10 rocket artillery pieces, but they still yielded, at the standard sustained-fire rate instead of fire-support rate, over 150,000 shells and 11000 rockets in the latter two hours of bombardment. To this was added one hour of fire-support style fire, during which almost as much ammunition was fired, as the first hour of bombardment. This was to kill as many government officials as possible and hinder efforts to retrieve any documents. The next two hours were to stop search operations for classified documents in addition to pounding the whole district absolutely flat out of spite.

Unfortunately, when the troops actually entered action at 5 in the morning, they couldn't nab most of the documents because they were wrecked from the bombardment. There was also the constant pinging of bullets off Tank and APC armour, which did nothing but was hideously ANNOYING. The counter-sniper fire was mostly of 7.5mm calibre from the firing ports of the APCs, but there was also 40mm cannon shells involved in putting down the snipers. The most entrenched buildings, mostly the ones that fired back with rocket launchers, were given preferential treatment by flamethrowers. A handful of APCs had been lost to rocket launcher fire before the Raider IIs took the fore. Fortunately most of the civilians were smart enough to keep their heads down and the troops only made one big pass through the city, seized whatever they could from the government records and such, then left Damascus in the dust.

They wheeled back, took half a day to reorganize and headed south, smashing into the northern border of Jordan shortly before sunset on November 7. The night was by no means silent as the armour and their support formed several roughly amoeboid formations and metastasized south. It was almost like the Mongol horde of old thundering over the steppes and deserts, smashing resistance along their path. The only difference was that they didn't burn villages, didn't mow down civilians (running at the vehicles with satchel charges makes one a non-civilian by the way), didn't rape and didn't loot. There were several reasons for this. The first reason was that it was morally wrong and would be severely punished according to the C-O-C unless it was legitimate salvaging of food under Foraging Doctrine (unnecessary with good supply lines). The second was that it wouldn't foster good relations later. The third was, well, that there was no time.

The Jordanians and Iraqis were totally cut off by November 11th and being butchered in armoured encirclements while the Egyptians' poor logistics systems bogged the down in southwest Palestine, along with Saudi, Yemen and Sudanese forces committed to the fight. They were constantly being pounded at night by SI fighter/bombers and the daytime wasn't enough to obtain enough supplies for adequate offensive operations, especially in the face of the one Logistics Brigade (at about 90% strength) stalling them dead in place, often literally.

On November 15th the last Jordanian and Iraqi forces surrendered, and on the morning of that day 9th Division had already smashed through the Egyptian lines. Hannah had a hard choice to make: Saudi Arabia or not? Certainly the war would enter Egyptian territory, bout she couldn't take and hold Saudi Arabia with only two divisions available in the short term, and it would hurt her reputation. Hence she chose for now to ignore the Saudi involvement in this First War of Palestine as she dubbed it, it wasn't too significant an involvement anyways. Sudan would similarly be ignored, as it was too far from her, however, Egypt had better not be expecting to keep all of the Sinai, because it started invading even though it could see the others were being hammered down to size. Jordan could also afford losing its (very tiny) Red Sea coastline for attacking first.

This gave her pause though, who exactly had incited the riots that had been suppressed only by massive military presence and a state of war? She'd thought it was the UN (i.e. United States) but now she wasn't so sure, it could have been any of the aggressor factions who wanted an excuse to annex parts of Palestine. It could also potentially have been the Soviet Union, eager to test its new tanks against her Raider IIs to gauge the chances of a successful war if she decided to sell tanks en masse to the Allies like she did with the old Raider Is. There were so many suspects that Hannah could not determine who the true opponent was. However, she stated in her logs that she would place money on it being the US of A that started the riots and then tried to ambush her convoy.

Later on, documents would be seized that proved the Soviets actually incited the Arab countries after the UN ponderings about splitting up Palestine. This incitation was unsurprising considering the Arab belligerents used Soviet gear, but Truman had seen during the crisis the opportunity to take Hannah out of the picture. His failure to do so, by a combination of Hannah's tactics, engineering, and luck, would mean for many regions "peace for our time".

* * *

><p>Archivists' Note: Of course, that fact is rather beside the point for now and would likely get us archivists complaints out of irritation if we went any further. Rest assured though, even though our leader is great, like Kane before her she made occasional mistakes, such as the bombardment of Damascus's governmental sector being far too thorough for recovery of many documents of value.<p>

* * *

><p><em>Mid-Late November, 1952<em>

Seven Raider II losses were reported in quick succession from the front lines against Egypt and Hannah frowned deeply at reports of a new rocket artillery weapon that fired single warheads. It was apparently termed the Scud Missile Launcher and could kick armoured butt from long range if it hit anything, which was questionable. Still, in return about three dozen of the launchers had been toasted along with many other Egyptian units, so she wasn't alarmed, merely disturbed by the news of the Soviets having ballistic missile technology. The things were hideously under-protected, so much so that looking at the photos she wondered how they could stand moving without collapsing. Still, it was a problem, as the presence of the things meant her armour had to rush to close range, and that could mean getting trapped by the Soviet-made Heavy Tanks in some sort of ambush.

It was fortunate that the Scud was rather inaccurate, especially at long range, and even more so against mobile targets, so by staying on the move and calling in heavy air support the armoured columns held their own against the enemy missiles. The main part of the doctrine was the same as Shepard Industries' typical tactics: massed armoured sweeps annihilating all resistance ahead of them. As it was conducted regardless of time of day or weather conditions, the old tactic still worked fairly well as enemy positions were overrun at point-blank range in the middle of sandstorms. The tanks were going slow and with their engines turned down to be quiet, and were triangulating off the radio waves of aircraft patrolling high overhead to at least get the right general heading. They squished Egyptian Army tents and soldiers under their treads and fired at any armoured vehicles clearly sighted to not be painted with the Red Maple Leaf. Only Raider IIs were employed in the rather gritty attack, as their hull lines were considered highly distinctive (massive turrets relative to hull size) and thus risk of friendly fire was far lower than with APCs or others, plus they could withstand 95mm shells to an extent.

The invasion force eventually hit the Suez Canal lines and smashed the Egyptians flat against the enormous British garrison complex around the Canal after tracking all over the Sinai. However, this took an astonishingly long time by SI standards, all the way until November 30th, and crushed most of the Egyptian Army into surrendering. By this time Hannah was ready to hear the Egyptians sue for peace, but even with her fleets occupying the entire coast north and south of the Canal the Egyptians seemed to be unwilling to quite sue for peace. Still, the situation in Korea was getting worse, and Eisenhower, the US President-elect, was planning on a tour of Korea in late December or early January if her sources were accurate. She needed to end this war quickly, and on her own terms, instead of letting the UN convene again and dictate terms to her that would no doubt try to appease Egypt. Even her old friends, the British and French, would likely stand against her this time, since Britain needed control over the traffic of the Canal to help its economic full recovery from the last war, and the French also wanted a say in the oil supplies being moved around the Mediterranean through the Canal. In other words, they'd want to suck up to Egypt.

Couple that with the American interests in friendliness with Egypt and the Soviets, who likely wanted the war to end now that they'd finished field-testing their new technology and found it inadequate, and she would have a reputation disaster on her hands as soon as the UN got around itself enough to force a peace on her. In less glorified terms, she would extend an offer of peace to the Egyptians, though she'd demand a piece of the Sinai as her compensation for the war. It would be incorporated as a province or two of the State of Palestine, and that would do them some good, as the State was currently only four provinces, and needed to open up some more, be liberalized. She brought them modern life, and for that she had a measure of influence over them, enough to get at their children. Within two generations, she would be able to influence them into even-mindedness and tolerance of differences, with limits of course.

* * *

><p>Archivist's Note: Note that this section (marked by the section splitters) is assuming the archivists interpreted the Generalissimo's behaviour correctly, her comment on looking over this section of the manuscript was "Say what you like, friends, say what you like, as long as the factual parts are accurate and you guys can agree on what speculation you have."<p>

This conduct of business was part of her master plan, most likely, her plan to gain influence over her Client States by influencing their children. A later quote by her is the reason for this speculation: "He who controls the children controls the future."

* * *

><p><em>British Military Complex, Suez Canal, December 5, 1952<em>

The two leaders had signed the peace treaty, titled the "SI-Egypt Treaty of 1952" and shaken hands… about one hour before the telegram man burst in waving a telegram about the newest UN declaration. It was in the middle of dinner, and Hannah had been letting others eat first before she did, out of a sort of paranoia about poison. Usually she only had the same rations to eat as her troops, since she'd learned that Jane was the sister who could cook, she learnt that the hard way, but for now she indulged, after watching others eat first. Certainly, there were other, more insidious poisons that the other side could later take antidotes to, but she knew full well that Jane would deal with anyone who attacked her in that way. The man had a telegram about the latest UN resolution, passed a few minutes ago, and thus being rendered impotent with the peace treaty having been signed an hour before the UN Resolution.

Hannah was unhappy with the UN Resolution and shot it down legally before the Egyptians could do jack shit verbally. "It's irrelevant, only applying if we hostilities were still ongoing, we were at peace by the time the resolution was passed, and the UN Charter says that makes it irrelevant. I occupy all of the Sinai right now, and I'm willing to back off of the majority of it."

"The UN wants you to back off all the way back to your own territory." The Egyptians pointed out.

"You don't want this to be a contest of force, I could hold the Sinai against you indefinitely, and it would be a severe embarrassment to you. Back off on this one, for your own reputation and status." _You__can__'__t__challenge__me__and__win,__and__you__know__it._ The message went unsaid.

"You could try, but we can muster greater forces than you can."

"Numerically maybe, until I bring a few divisions from Korea. Trust me, you do not want that. With six divisions' front-line units, my once-subordinate Gunter von Esling inflicted at least three times his total manpower in casualties upon the Germans at the Ossuary during the Battle of the Bulge. I can bring in a couple more divisions, and we'll see just who's better, your forces, or the Wehrmacht back in the day." She stated lightly.

"So soon after a treaty and you are already threatening war again?"

"No, I'm merely stating facts, if you try to evict us from the parts of the Sinai agreed on in the treaty, you will have violated it first." She resisted the urge to show her irritation and thus did not start picking at her nails. "The Treaty is quite simple and specific, follow it, and we will have peace, for some time at least."

"Can you offer us a real reason NOT to follow the UN way of doing this? We can't evict you, but the United Nations most certainly can, give us a reason not to."

"Firstly, the fact that we were already at peace officially when the resolution was passed renders it moot by the UN Charter, and considering I'm not quite threatening their control over the Canal the British and French will back me for keeping a slice" It was about a quarter "of the Sinai as compensation for your invasion. Secondly, I agree with you that the Suez Canal could be nationalized by Egypt and it would be a correct move. I will acknowledge Egypt's right to the Suez Canal, will the UN do that? I find that very, VERY unlikely. Europe receives nearly a million barrels of oil a day from the Middle East, half of which goes through the Canal. Can you imagine what you can make off that in terms of transit fees? I can, and I'll tell you right now that it's infinitely better for you economically and politically to regain control over the Canal than hold onto a sliver of the Sinai that has no real resources in it. You will take years before the UN agrees with you on the Suez Canal issue, if ever."

Three hours of debating later, the deal was settled and Hannah had gotten her way, with an addendum to the treaty added stating that if Egypt was to nationalize the Suez Canal, she would not allow foreign forces through her territory to attack Egypt. However, it also stated that she would not militarily intervene on any side unless she was attacked by any side. She left the meeting satisfied, for even though there was still much to do, at least this war had been put to rest.

Now the civil unrest had to be dealt with, especially the paranoia of the Jewish population against overly obvious military presences in civilian life. It irked her a bit, since police work, of the assault variety, was obviously best handled by professional soldiers randomly brought in for the occasion. Investigations were another matter entirely, but sniping a hostage-holder from 600 meters? Definitely a soldier's job. The number of robberies, muggings, and so on had dropped sharply with the soldiers assisting in law enforcement. After all, few would dare rob a store if a rather squat tank rolled by every once in a while at fairly irregular intervals and APCs were stationed at intersections of highways and some of the bigger arterial roads. They'd begun as sort of police rapid reaction posts, but then mainly served to direct traffic as the policemen stood on the hulls and waved their flags and such to guide drivers. Finally, beginning last year, traffic light installation meant the things returned to police duty. The troops in each squad took shifts crewing their squad vehicle and providing rides for the Palestinian cops, who were locked away from the crew compartment by the bulkhead in the vehicles, just to be safe.

The show of force made sense, according to public opinion surveys, since being chased by a police car is one thing, being chased by a 30-ton (the ceramic armour upgrade had reduced weight) armoured personnel carrier was another thing altogether. Sure, it couldn't catch up with some cars, but when the tracks couldn't catch up, well, carefully aimed 12.5mm machine-gun rounds could. Besides, the intimidating presences of the vehicles were pretty much enough to scare would-be thieves into submission. It seemed unfortunately that the police forces, the assault sectors, being mostly military scared the Jews too, since it was like the system in Nazi Germany in this regard. The one critical difference—that the boss didn't hate Jews—was seemingly overlooked since the Jewish wanted their own laws and regulations, or better yet a sovereign state to help look after their own interests better.

Ironically, the Jewish were acting so self-absorbed and insular that Hannah's comment on the situation was said to have been "I wouldn't be surprised if they started calling themselves the _Herrenvolk_ or something one of these days…" Incidentally, that term, German for "Master Race" was what the Nazis called Germans, or rather, "Aryans" back in the days of the now-crushed Third Reich. She continued her musings with "They should remember that more Poles and Gypsies died than Jews in the Holocaust. It's ugly, but it's the truth god damn it!" She said with a scowl at the meeting of the Generals in the theatre at the moment. "Homosexuals, Slavs, all sorts of people died by Nazi hands, not just them… and we can't slap some sense into them either because of their holocaust connections. Well, we need to find a way to appease them."

"Like what?" The Major general who had commanded the SI garrison of Palestine before the crisis, and who was still technically the commander of said garrison, spoke up.

Hannah sighed "I don't think reminding them that their aggression and insular behaviour is almost Nazi-like would be a good idea, so we might as well just modify the immigration laws a bit, put a quota on the number of Jews allowed in each year the same way they have a quota on the number of Arabs. We need to shave down the percent of Jews in this region to below 45%" They were currently at 50% "before we can be sure of stability, and we need to use lots of subliminal messaging. Remind them that much of the world hated them, even many of the Allies, during the last war, yet the Arabs were civil toward them when we started bringing them in en masse." This was despite the fact that there hadn't been much of a mass to speak of with how long and thorough the Gestapo were in their searches, and immigration was always mainly from the Allied nations since Palestine was created. "The Arabs were tolerant of them when others were not, and they repay the Arabs and us with desire of secession?" She grunted in disgust and shook her head in annoyance. "We need to remind them of just who stood between them and masses of Syrian, Jordanian, Egyptian and Iraqi armour purchased from the Soviets."

She took a deep breath "We can't remind them the Soviets are the true threat because Stalin hasn't done much except make this area into his weapons lab, but we need to make them understand that only we can provide protection against a powerful enemy. Everyone else is too thinly-stretched to even sell them old World War Two hardware from their own units. We have the best gear, the best-trained soldiers, the most disciplined troops and the most will to protect them." Although US Marines and Army personnel had far more parade-ground discipline than SI troops could ever muster, the US troops had participated in raping women on Okinawa. The SI troops on the other hand enforced the law by arresting US troops caught in the act, usually with a Raider II sitting around intimidating the other US troops present into backing down, then escorting the arrested man to his superiors for reporting. It earned a lot of respect from most American troops, but also a sort of derision about why they didn't do the same to the enemy.

The response to that question was that enemies caught in the act were just shot or bayoneted. Exceedingly painful castration before execution was common, but not always employed, i.e. skipped when time was short or they needed things to be quiet. Needless to say, while their discipline under fire, expert training, and honourable conduct (on propaganda at least, and for dispensing justice where due) made them incredibly popular among the civilians of Allied and even some enemy nations, they were sometimes thought of as stealing the limelight from their allies' soldiers. The average GI who hadn't fought in the same combat zone as SI troops had an opinion of "They're good and all, but they keep stealing the fan-girls from us grunts."

By contrast, the average GI who had fought in the line with SI troops was of the opinion that "They deserve what they have: women in their army, fan-girls, good pay, good rations… they deserve it all, I've never had to stay up for nights in a row battling through the enemy's rear end in one pitched battle after another, constantly alert for ambushes and enemy movements in the dead of night, and I hope I never have to. Oh, and let's not forget they saved our asses a lot, so they deserve the recognition they get."

The protests quieted a bit after several negotiation sessions during which a few concessions were made, such as listing two more Jewish holidays as State Holidays in the State of Palestine, but then negotiations broke down when the Jews asked for segregation. Well, they didn't so much break down as the Jewish negotiator, a man by the name of Mordechai Anielwicz, stating "We'd like to establish better-defined Jewish and Arab areas in this State" brought Hannah's train of thought into a sudden and very messy pile-up as everything clicked into place and all was good.

Thankfully, the whole negotiation was being broadcast on live television "What? You want to be segregated? You want targeting your people to be easy? You want inequality, to be treated differently? If you want to isolate yourselves, make people resent you, that is your choice, but don't expect me to put up with it. Still, you shock me with how you WANT to be treated the way you were treated in Nazi Germany back in the beginning… before the War."

"That's not what I…"

"Segregated communities, well then another Night of Broken Glass is all the more likely, Mr. Anielwicz." Hannah spat, cutting the man off before he could finish, she needed to press the advantage and buckle his entire front. "This time, you attacked the Arabs' pride, and the State of Palestine, the only reason they aren't hitting back is because they are willing to forgive and forget these transgressions. Your desire for seclusion will only brew hatred, for people hate that which they do not know or do not understand. If you really want to be protected, look around, are you being attacked here in this state? The UN promises you peace and all, but if any of the veto countries interests gets in the way you are a lamb for the slaughter. On the other hand, SI offers full protection against invaders and insurgents alike, we have protected Palestine for years now, and the recent war was won quickly and decisively, with almost no Palestinian casualties. Could you say the same if we weren't here to protect you, keeping in mind the Heavy Tanks and Scud Launchers the Soviets sold to the Arabs? The USSR would veto any UN motion to support you, and you would have been crushed. We have an agreement, Mr. Anielwicz, you follow the fair and unbiased SI Client State Constitution and pay us an annual sum instead of spending a lot more money on an army of your own, and we provide protection as well as disaster insurance, you will not find a more affordable package of remotely similar quality anywhere!"

"This is HEGEMONY, not PROTECTION!"

"Do I sound like I'm exploiting you? I'm giving you modernization, disaster relief, military support, and for what in return? I'm running a net loss here!" It was a small one, but still… "This is not Hegemony, this is me looking after your interests and uniting the small powers of the world, for together, the Small Powers are STRONG!"

Even some of the Jewish members of the negotiations had to applaud in appreciation at that. The negotiations ceased being negotiations and turned into a one-sided slaughter soon after that. By the end of it, well, the Jewish population of Palestine could grumble, but there wouldn't be enough unconverted dissenters left to start another series of damaging riots that couldn't be literally hemmed in by APCs and herded back to their homes. Hannah was very glad for this, since, as would be revealed many, MANY years later, Anielwicz was in fact a mole she had in the dissenter groups, one of her Black Ops men, and he'd succeeded. He was rigged to present the dissenters' arguments in a straightforward fashion and thus allow her to beat him, and the voices of dissention, down in debate instead of armed confrontation before actually going about the business of seeing if there was anything she could do to alleviate tensions.

The conclusion she got was that she would need to give the Jews preferential treatment to silence them completely, and that was not an option, even though she felt sorry for their suffering in the Holocaust. They needed to learn that the world would at best be fair to everyone the way she had enforced in Palestine for the past few years, and that they weren't going to get preferential treatment. The UN had talked of billions paid by Germany to the proposed state of Israel before they realized there weren't enough Jews at the time in Europe to justify creating such a state. Gunter had at the time sighed and stated "The Germans made mistakes, so they need to pay for those mistakes. If need be, we will bear the burden without complaint, for we knew and acknowledged we were wrong."

The Jews here were trumpeting their Holocaust experiences from the rooftops all the time, which was getting a little bit annoying as the Poles, Gypsies and homosexuals were not doing anything of the sort. She wanted to pound in the knowledge that it wasn't just the Jews that suffered, but knew she could not for fear of political repercussions. Still, she could not give them more preferential treatment, only be stricter regarding racially or religiously-based crimes. It was her only option, since she already had easier immigration for them.

She needed to go back to Korea in time to meet with Eisenhower near the end of his tour, which had begun early apparently by the reports she got on December 16, right after she sent a letter congratulating Gunter on getting engaged at last. She was hoping to come back in time, having concluded the Korean War and set North Korea up for itself, to be present at the graduation ceremonies of the first big groups of Arab schoolgirls to finish elementary schooling. They were in the accelerated program that was to put them at the equivalent of completing eighth grade in terms of curriculum so that they could proceed through the new high schools and thus get secondary education.

That program was unheard of already, so Hannah, choosing to take baby steps, decided not to rush into co-ed high schools too quickly lest it spark mass protest. She needed to ease them into liberalism, the understanding that men and women were equals, despite not being the same. Even though their supreme ruler (basically that was her role) was a woman, since she didn't interfere too much, she was mostly thought of as more of a guardian angel or figurehead than anything else. Of course, she would need to subliminally message into the girls the idea of "If men cannot keep their lewd eyes to themselves, that is their problem. Just because they're retarded doesn't mean I don't have freedom of fashion" before equality could even be within shouting distance. There was also another problem with that message, they needed to understand "practicality first" before employing it, because she could just imagine the Arab schoolgirls walking gingerly with high heels and parents protesting over that…

Onto lighter topics… she could drop by Germany after all the ceremonies to attend Gunter's wedding, which he'd said would be scheduled for early July 1953, and then? Well, she didn't know what she would do after that, maybe go home to Canada and visit with family for the first time in many months? Whatever it was, it was sure to be interesting.

* * *

><p>AN: Did you know that in some wallpapers and such Heavy Tanks are single-barreled and less bulky (thus with thinner armour) than they should be in the dual-barrelled version? Well, now you know where and when they were like that. Also, the Americans were expecting to get away in the confusion after hitting the _British Columbia_ with torpedoes.

REVIEW!


	4. Liberation Days

A/N: NOW WE SHALL SEE WHY HANNAH IS OP, IT HAS TO DO WITH **KANE**!

Sorry Ch 3 was late, lots of university application contingency plans to deal with last week… got deferred Early Action. As for the insanity of sending subs for the attack, well, although they didn't invent a nuclear torpedo yet, Hannah had enough enemies that maybe some could have gotten their hands on some subs… plausible deniability for Truman (who I hate for firing MacArthur and thus being retarded in the Korean War, hence I gave him the Idiot Ball to hold for a bit)!

REMEMBER, PEOPLE IN THE 50S WERE EXTREMELY RACIST, I AM JUST BEING TRUE TO THE TIMES‼

Also, for anyone who's wondering what the global distribution of SI forces is as of the turn of 1952 to 1953:

8 Field Divisions in North Korea: Total 16 Motorized, 8 Mechanized, 8 Armoured and 8 attached Aviation Brigades.

2 Field Divisions in Germany, moved to Palestine for the First War of Palestine, then moved back to Germany. Slated for recall from Germany in 1957, currently fully funded by Germany as long as they are operating within Germany.

1 Aviation Division in Japan: Total 5 Aviation Brigades attached

5 Independent Aviation Brigades in operation, one for each side of Canada, 1stationed in Germany, 2 in Palestine (she wanted to compensate for lack of front-line brigades in Palestine)

9 Logistics Brigades, 1 in Germany, 3 in Canada, 2 in Palestine, 2 in Japan, 1 in North Korea. The ones in Germany and Japan are slated for recall/redeployment in 1957 and 1958 respectively.

* * *

><p>Chapter 4: Liberation Days<p>

_Winter of 1952-1953_

Hannah Shepard woke up on Christmas morning not to presents but to the prospect of Eisenhower arriving in-theatre, which meant she had to convince him to agree with her on the North Korea issue. There were also new reports on the growing communist insurgency in French Indochina and of course reports on the situation in Palestine, which had simmered down for now. She was also getting favourable responses from the new African states, such as Libya and possibly Kenya, regarding signing up as a client state sometime. Apparently she was helpful enough in Palestine without intruding on local laws and democratic processes other than for "everyone's right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" that they considered her more a protector than a colonial power. Excellent.

What was not so excellent was the tour and opinion Eisenhower had of South Korea over the next few days. The man was in a rather foul mood by the time he finished the tour and wondering why the hell he was supporting Rhee in his plan to take over the whole peninsula. Hannah had ensured this by inviting Eisenhower in a discreet tour via truck, with armoured escorts lurking all around them as inconspicuously as possible (this wasn't much). That meant Syngman Rhee hadn't been able to cloud the president-elect's judgement significantly (by tidying things up on the President's route) and thus Eisenhower was PISSED at the South Koreans' secret police system, which was more flagrant than the Gestapo in Nazi Germany.

Hannah put down a tray of tea and biscuits she'd grabbed from the stores of the HQ building in Pusan "So, Mr. President-elect, this is the reason I didn't join the war on your side per se, and why I'm not letting the South Koreans administer the territory I took from North Korea."

The ex-General picked up his teacup and started drinking slowly "Thanks for the tea and biscuits… and the tour, Generalissimo. Anyways, Truman was a lunatic," Eisenhower muttered, shaking his head sadly "I wouldn't have put Rhee in charge of himself, the megalomaniac… If Congress didn't demand we preserve South Korea I'd deal with him myself…"

"That's where I come in, General, I am clearly a permanent faction of the Allies, and the Allies know this to be true, so if I make North Korea an SI Client State, we will have brought it into the fold of the Allies, and kept it away from Communism. Since China and North Korea both agree with the arrangement, we would also have managed an end to this war, which makes us all look good."

Eisenhower shrugged "At one point I was contemplating the use of nuclear weapons in North Korea, but your option sounds infinitely more practical to me, plus with all the information that's gone out about nukes and fallout, well…" He knew that Hannah probably distributed the information to make her troops look better after the Operation: Tyrannic debacle, but the information had gotten out enough that using nukes would be a black smear on his country's reputation "Give me a couple months to get into office and we'll see if I can't sell it to Congress."

"No."

Eisenhower coughed in surprise (and from his biscuit) "No?"

"No, if you don't mind and want to slack off, _I'll_ sell it to Congress."

There were a few things Eisenhower kept from his military days, such as if someone is trusted, incredibly competent, charismatic, gorgeous, and volunteers for a sales pitch job to take a load off your shoulders, let them try it. "And you don't have an issue with doing that?"

"I've sold things to my Parliament and the British Parliament. Surely selling things to your Congress won't be too much different…"

* * *

><p>Before she could go sell to Congress, there was the matter of the North Sea Flood to deal with, as reports came in on February 1 from Gunter that he'd sent her units, including the Atlantic Fleet First Supply Flotilla, in to help with search-and-rescue operations and clean-up. The Atlantic First Supply Flotilla was usually loitering in German ports as freight haulers, their guaranteed protected cargo space leased to companies by contracts, however now was a time of emergency for the Netherlands and Belgium. The Saturday night meant few offices were staffed, and the radio stations did not broadcast at night, so the flood-threatened area had not been warned in time and was taken by surprise. Thousands of people had already been reported to be drowned as Gunter sent the one Aviation Brigade stationed in Germany there to air-drop supplies in floatation-bag fitted crates and grab what people they could using the first model of SI-made choppers (V-HT-1950Cs) that had begun filtering into the SI Aviation Brigades as aircraft and parts were lost to wear or battle. Raider IIs and APCs waded bravely into the shallower-flooded areas, using their 2.5 meters of height to provide submerged, snorkelling islands for refugees to hand onto while the tank rolled to safety using a periscope. Trucks ran day and night from warehouses in Germany, brining food, tents, blankets, and medical aid to the disaster victims.<p>

Hannah found the report quite favourable, and returned the message of "Keep up the good work". The Netherlands only commented on how "It would be nice to give us more than an hour's warning before your tanks roll over our border to help out next time" instead of mentioning the theoretical violation of sovereignty since it technically was SI instead of the German Army. Needless to say, the help bought a LOT of brownie points with the Dutch as they recuperated in the hastily erected tent cities, clutching canteens and food tins stamped with a small Maple Leaf with Bars and wrapped in red blankets bearing the same logo in one corner. One Corvette was used to physically plug a hole in a dyke, protecting three million people in the provinces of South and North Holland. It was sunk there by allowing the ship to be flooded after the anchors were locked down on the river bed, and managed to plug the dyke. There was also the fact that SI was already extremely popular in the region after the events of World War Two. As a result of the supplies coming from Germany, the Dutch at least acknowledged that maybe the Germans were worth reopening relations with now…

Well, that went well, hopefully the US Congress would be similarly simple to deal with… that was what Hannah thought and hoped.

* * *

><p>The difficulty with Congress was by no means due to the Americans wanting power over the peninsula, since they knew that China would not allow such proximity. Of course, they were defending South Korea against communism, in whatever way they may have justified to themselves, and Hannah could understand that. The real problem came with the archaic view toward women still held in the US, since there women were seen as belonging in the home, and were excluded from many professions and jobs. Hell, womankind's lot and rights in PALESTINE were better than that by 1950, not to mention Canada, which was her home base. In both countries under her sphere of influence, along with some of the countries more affected by her troops in the last war i.e. Britain, France and Germany, there were already winds (or results) of change toward a more equal, more sexually balanced mode of thought and action. In her occupied areas of North Korea too there was social indoctrination of the locals by the relatively benign occupiers.<p>

After the more radical elements in the occupied regions—i.e. North Korean secret police agents—were put down, the rest capitulated willingly since the occupiers were treating them better than Kim Il-Sung had ever treated them. The man was a tyrant, and he had to go. The Chinese were okay with this, and the vast majority of North Korea hated him, so it wouldn't be much of a problem later, but that is another story.

Anyhow, the archaic view of women the US held was displayed with daunting power by US commercials of the time, portraying a woman as helpless if her car broke down. The recruitment videos targeting women for the SI military on the other hand included video footage of women performing field repairs on Raider-series tanks in respites from combat and stripping down permanently wrecked vehicles for parts to repair other tanks with… The only thing that made sure she was able to meet with Congress on February 5, 1953 was Eisenhower. And when she met with them she was met herself with looks of derision and annoyed snorts form many Congressmen, particularly from the south and the mid-west provinces (Nevada, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, etc.) which had historically been the most traditional and conservative. She wondered for a brief moment if running them over with tanks manned by her female troops would change their minds before reminding herself that politicians were too stupid for that sort of thing to work and they wouldn't understand it even after, or thanks to, being turned into meat sauce.

"Greetings, Congressmen of the United States of America!" The mumbled and bored greetings she got didn't faze her one bit and she kept her smile on despite the men mostly either not paying attention or staring at her chest. It made life easier if they were at least slightly distracted, although she cursed her parents for giving her such a set of traits whenever she had to go bra shopping, it took some time riffing through the store inventory before she found what she wanted most of the time. "I am Hannah Shepard, co-owner and co-founder of Shepard Industries, and I come to you with a proposition to win the Korean War for the Allies in a mere few days if you agree." That got their interest, since far fewer looked catatonic and some of the ones previously wondering about her bust size seemed to be looking her in the eye now.

"China insists on a buffer state between the forces of the United States or United Nations and their own forces, and have agreed to allow North Korea to become one of my client states should we be able to agree to peace. The South Korean government is every bit as brutal as Nazi Germany and Syngman Rhee every bit as ambitious as Hitler. He has ordered the killings of at least 400,000 civilians since the war started, and will not be satisfied with merely reuniting Korea, just as Hitler was not satisfied with the Rhineland and Sudetenland! We must stop his ambitions before they grow any further, and so I beseech you, the defenders of the free world, to stand with me and curb South Korean ambitions before we have another Hitler on our hands. Even the Chinese have agreed with my proposal and are willing to make concessions, so surely America recognizes the territorial gains by South Korea since the war began are sufficient? I will not allow Chinese forces into North Korea, and I will enforce democracy and human rights in North Korea. By agreeing with me, you will crush a tyrannical regime that we both want eliminated without repercussions with China or the USSR, and set up an Allies-friendly state instead of a Communist one. Is that not the point of this war? This is no personal vendetta, but a fight for North Korea, a fight for justice, honour and freedom." She didn't bother being overly dramatic as these greasy politicians didn't buy that sort of thing anyways. Still, she made it abundantly clear that it was in the best interest of the United States to accept the deal that even China had agreed to. She left the next section to Eisenhower.

"Public opinion wants the Korean War to end, and end soon." Eisenhower stated simply "The Generalissimo is offering us a good chance to end it on terms that are best to us, since the alternatives are the use of nuclear weapons, which is undesirable considering the results of the Trinity test being known to the public, or the continued existence of North Korea as a communist state. Besides, if we let her have it, we don't need to do another Marshall Plan for North Korea, assuming we can even take it over without needing to go into a world war with China. She is also able to protect North Korea's security, seeing how many forces she can bring to bear on an enemy if needed."

In the end, Congress voted, by a narrow margin, to accept, seeing how she had recently won the First War of Palestine and succeeded in protecting her first client state from aggressors. The fact that she chose not to comment on how several Eastern European countries had begun to lean toward communism helped greatly. The thing was that the Allies didn't have enough military manpower to fight China and contain the Comintern in Europe at the same time. Hence, the Congressmen were forced into agreeing with her once Eisenhower mentioned that problem during the dispute. It was the fastest, most media-friendly, easiest option they had, after all.

The result was another week-long armistice as the parties met at Panmunjom starting March 1, 1953, and talked, mere days after preliminary meetings between SI and China resulted in the standing down of the PVA and the complete takeover of North Korea by 8 SI Field Divisions within a day and a half. The Chinese agreed readily to the peace treaty, the North Koreans were powerless to resist, and the Americans also agreed. The South Koreans were not at all happy, but agreed to acknowledge the Socialist Republic of North Korea, simply because, as the leader of the negotiators said "A country's name is often completely opposite to its actual nature". It was a nod to the "Democratic People's Republic of Korea" i.e. the North Korea of Kim Il-Sung, who had been captured and jailed awaiting trial and execution for his war crimes. However, South Korea refused to sign the peace treaty, and it wasn't like the others could force the ROK (Republic of Korea i.e. South Korea) delegates to do so via physical force…

* * *

><p>AN: This is true of our lives too, South Korea is still technically at war… And the Clean Water Act came only after rivers started catching fire, though this thing will be later…

* * *

><p><em>Spring 1953<em>

That was irrelevant as hundreds of blocks of concrete were brought in and prefab housing was put together where no shelter was available. It would take a month before the basics were totally in place and Hannah could begin assembling the new civil government from a list of competent intellectuals drawn from the civilian population. There were very few of them, but they worked after a fashion, though they'd need political advisors from her to help in the first few months. The North Korean military mostly just capitulated, but the secret police units had to be purged, and purged they were…

By the public reaction to the toppling of the DPRK regime, namely people parading in the streets of major cities—under the watchful eyes of SI soldiers to prevent violence or looting just by force of presence—chanting in Korean "Free at last! Free at last! Thank—" here was put whatever deity they personally believed in, be it a Buddha or one of the Taoist deities "—Almighty, we are free at last!"

Hannah Shepard smiled contentedly as she listened the radio report of the parades. Her contacts and the North Korean underground movements (against Kim Il-Sung) she'd rallied to her cause, plus the Asian troops she had under her dressed in casual clothes had paid off splendidly, by inciting the celebrations and starting the cheer. After all, with the mindfulness of collateral damage her troops had displayed when storming the remaining half of North Korea in a wide-front sweep, they had gained much respect from the locals, even former North Korea soldiers. This, coupled with a lack of terror attacks by the soldiers against them, meant the civilians were fearless of celebrating in the open, and when the shout of freedom went up from among them the crowd shouted along.

The casual-dress Asian-heritage soldiers mixed in with the crowd were all wearing modified body armour (idea stolen from Americans, then modified and greatly improved) disguised as coats and bulky pants of assorted conditions and colours that could blend in. They were to start the cheers, then help the troops monitoring the masses of people in ensuring no one got trampled in the mob. It was not implausible that a civilian would lend soldiers a hand in loosening up the crowd so that no one was trampled, according to Asian and more importantly socialist cultures. Hence they got away with it, and once the celebrations were winding down left discreetly to return to their comrades.

The next order of business was the trial of Kim Il-Sung, which went rather quickly and painlessly, and was concluded with sentencing Kim Il-Sung "to be shot". The means of shooting was left up to the executioners, and it was left up to the preferred implement for dealing with the eviller megalomaniacs: The sandblaster, loaded with coarse salt. Some megalomaniacs were treated better than others, such as Hirohito, whose death had been relatively painless. The same would not be true for the remorseless North Korean. The North Koreans themselves, those who hated the man, were chosen to do the job, and they did so with great glee, particularly the badly abused women liberated from the man's private palace harem. They ended it by dumping a bucket of gasoline which was conveniently available to them over the man once all that was left of him was his dying gasps, and lighting him on fire. Then the flaming corpse (very greasy, lots to burn) was impaled onto a long shaft of broken steel beam and strung up into the hand of a scaled-down model of the Statue of Liberty, put on a floater car to roll along the streets of Pyongyang after the public execution. When the vehicle finally stopped, Hannah stepped to the front of the lift, backlit by the dying flames, and began reading in the best Korean she could manage, which wasn't very good even with the practice she had "Never again shall a tyrant oppress the people of North Korea! Never again shall you be the downtrodden, the enslaved! You will hold power, from this day onward, you, the people of North Korea, shall have, within reason, the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness!"

She suddenly felt the urge to duck, and did so instinctively an instant before a sniper round whizzed over her head and her guards fired at the source of the round, eliminating it before the crowd could do much. Then she had to throw herself sideways to bypass another bullet aimed for her, relying only on some ancient instinct that she didn't understand and didn't need to understand. The source of that round was similarly disposed of by counter-sniper fire. The mob panicked for only a moment before she was back up, released from her survival instinct and standing tall, proud, beautiful and unharmed, eyes blazing with fire "I will let that slide, for mercy and understanding is what distinguishes men from apes." Her translator repeated the message in the megaphone before she went back to the script "You may disagree with my ideals, but any injustices will be dealt with as the SI Client State Constitution" That was translated to SI Alliance State Constitution "demands, and any attempt to breach the constitution will be dealt with, the time for equality to all is NOW!" She finished with her traditional fist, and the audience copied the gesture, cheering wildly.

After descending from the float and getting into an APC, she broke her cool "Find out who did that and hunt down their entire organization, I don't like using violent methods, but they've forced my hand on this one with being violent first." She didn't want to do this, but as the public loved her men she could afford to do it, dissent was tolerated under the Client State Constitution. Violence against civilian or governmental targets, on the other hand, was NOT. If you had a complaint about SI, send a letter and they would address it for you, or at least give you an explanation, and if you had a big enough petition they'd consider public debate or televised negotiation about the problem, but violence… NO.

* * *

><p><em>Moscow, several days later<em>

Kane looked at the reports and raised one eyebrow, nodding, it seemed his suspicions about the woman were correct. An ancient memory came to the old, old man (though he looked only middle-aged by most standards) that confirmed it. She did have the instinct, she was attuned enough, she didn't grow old, as those who were left grew old… it was her all right. After so many millennia, the time for him to pass on the Mantle was nigh…

-FLACKBACK BEGINS-

"When your mission is nearing its end, when it is time for you to return to where you should have been, you will know, for another of your kind, the first to naturally be conceived, will rise. She will fight you every step of your way on your journey back to where you need to be, and she will win many times, but in the end, you will prevail once, and once is enough."

"Why?" A young Kane had asked.

The man opposite him at the table smiled "Time dictates it, and so mote it be. Don't give up the fight for world domination when the time comes and she emerges, but don't be too hesitant to pass on your stewardship of our kind to her when the time comes. You will know when the time has come, my friend. You will know."

"Why only fight for world domination after she emerges?" Kane had responded. "Wouldn't it make more sense to be pre-emptive?"

"You emerged into history, if the records of the pre-transition time are accurate, AFTER she did, hence you cannot start actively fighting for domination until after she emerges." The note that he'd handed to the younger man was burnt into the young one's memory, for it read "_Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, they will remember us…_"

-FLASHBACK ENDS-

Well, then, maybe he'd better get moving on world domination, eh? First step: Make sure Stalin is cured enough of his diseases and survives long enough to be a dumbass and start another world war in good time… Not a difficult task at all with the man's megalomania. Still, it kind of irked him to see that he had been born for a long vigil while she had in only fifty-three years of life clawed her way up to a point he had only reached after several thousand years of work, in terms of followers' planetary coverage. Ah well, perhaps that was why he was meant to pass the Mantle onto her, and not some random nobody.

* * *

><p><em>North Korea, Spring 1953<em>

For North Korea, indoor plumbing would take many months to become universal, because she needed to set up at least public waterworks and taps first, before being able to convey it into every household like she had in Palestine. Well, not every household, because there were always the backward holdouts who refused to leave the stone age, but that was beside the point. Economically, she could afford putting effort into industrializing North Korea with technologies her R&D divisions had put together, the same way as Palestine. Namely, these were technologies where you could still find plenty of healthy fish downriver of a manufacturing plant, they saved resources (raw materials) but rarely saved money. This was unless one counted the fishing industry, in which case it meant more GDP for her Client State and more income tax that state's government could gain from the corporations, and so the larger the percentage it would give to her would be quantitatively.

Her contacts had tossed lit matches into badly polluted rivers in Europe often enough that every few months one of the rivers would catch fire along nearly its whole length with the sheer amount of oil and grease floating on it. Of course, they were strictly forbidden, under threat of death, from dumping oil into the rivers themselves, but there was enough pollution that it didn't matter anyhow. The fact that she was possibly doing damage to public property by doing so never fazed her, it was after all legal to toss lit matches into water to extinguish them, right? If the river is too polluted to throw a match at without making a bonfire, WHY THE HELL ARE PEOPLE GETTING DRINKING WATER FROM THEM? At least, that's what the newspapers said, after she paid off some of the editors to do what they did best in a democracy: Criticise the government indirectly. Having started the campaign in 1948, shortly after the war, when she realized her Palestine-deployed technologies needed more of a market, she had started hearing of the winds of change in Western countries, not including the US, in 1952. Hopefully they would pass legislation that required less pollution soon, or she'd be running a deficit in that part of her business…

The massive profits from the consumer goods industry, shipping and hiring her troops out for garrison duty were being offset by the massive cost of maintaining 350,000 people on an acceptable payroll with increasingly alarming proximity as salaries rose. She was still running a significant net profit, but most of that went into R&D… which was especially demanding now that a new MBT was in the works, another 4-track-pod tank with a more robust chassis than a Raider IIC and better armour, at least, that was what it was supposed to be. The 110mm gun development was going alright, and so was the reinforced Christie suspension drive train, so far so good, it didn't look like it would take more than about one and a half years to reach production. That meant she could afford to start selling off her older Raider IIs, all upgraded to C standard, soon and fetch some more money with the cheap, mass-manufactured tanks that still easily rivalled the other countries' best tanks in power.

The only real problem was the fact that the new tank would need to at least somewhat outgun, out-endure, and of course by far out-run and out-manoeuvre the Soviet-made "T-50s" as they were being called. The need to compare made R&D look over its shoulder too often if the reports were accurate, so she sent them a letter saying "Make the new tank as powerful as possible with one main gun and one auxiliary weapon, THEN compare the two vehicles, don't bother designing it to be better, design it to be the best within production cost constraints." Those constraints maxed out at two times the cost of a Raider IIC to produce, but Hannah had a feeling the R&D guys wouldn't need nearly as much… and she would eventually turn out to be right. SI operated on a system of using medium-high quality hardware in sufficient quantities and of enough quality that swamping them with low-end hardware is unviable and higher-end hardware will not be able to be concentrated in one area in sufficient quantities to overcome them.

Back to the subject of making politicians move by literally igniting debate, she understood lethargy and knew that sometimes change wasn't necessarily the best, but sometimes, shit just had to get done. Setting their asses on fire—if only flames could go up toilet pipes… she'd seen Halifax harbour before her stuff was implemented and shit was literally floating on the surface—couldn't hurt anyone except them. Of course, she only targeted less important rivers that could "naturally" burn, not for example the Thames, otherwise someone would investigate and it would likely not turn out well. Lighting lesser rivers that were polluted enough to be lit was adequate for getting the point across, and would hopefully get enough of a market for her technology to make some more money…and save the world from poisoned water along the way. She liked the idea of making money by doing good things a little too much to be entirely business-practical, unless you count the commercial effect of the resulting reputation for always doing what's right. For example, taps and pipes produced by her, thanks to their high quality (they were basically made by repurposed gun factories), were now used as standard whenever replacement repairs were made on waterworks in Britain, France or Germany, and with the aging infrastructure or war damage, that had netted a lot of money over the past decade.

Still, the laying of basic infrastructure in North Korea was going acceptably, with water and electricity lines going up everywhere and major routing centers, under guard, being built near major cities. The fast paced work required the dedication that only her armed forces were currently able to provide, working from dawn to dusk, rebuilding railways, smashing out roads (roll a few tanks in a staggered line over the ground and you have a decent surface to work with) and basically modernizing the country while keeping the peace. The medics of the units were also instrumental in administering vaccines for polio and smallpox en masse to the populace. There were several nasty standoffs with the South Koreans at the recently established DMZ, but nothing really serious happened, in that no tank shells or artillery was exchanged… for now.

* * *

><p>AN: I am going to make Syngman Rhee younger so that he can take more time being a mad dictator and start the Korean DMZ Conflict. North and South Korea's roles will notably be somewhat flip-flopped this time around.

* * *

><p><em>June, 1953<em>

Having left Korea on the 4th of June and steamed in the Pacific Fleet Third Supply Flotilla, including all escorts, at a good 25 knots (economy speed when empty) Hannah reached Palestine through the Straits of Tiran at the newly-merged port complexes at the tip of the Gulf of Aqaba. The three cities were expected to grow together within two decades, for zoning by-laws favoured the cities, now under a single administration with representatives from every district, merging with time. This growth of course could only happen AFTER the space left by those Egyptians and Jordanians who wanted to leave Palestine instead of try the system out for a year was filled. It was linked to the main west coast ports by a recently build railroad system.

Now it was time to give a speech at the largest of gatherings, the first schools to hold their graduation ceremonies were those in the Arab-dominant regions, the Gaza Province and the West Bank Province. On June 22, designated as Women's Liberation Day in Palestine, the first of the graduation ceremonies occurred. School had been out for a few days now and report cards had been distributed, but it was now that the students would get their certificates from her generals and, for the Honour Roll students, herself. Of course, the first priority was the speech for the tens of thousands of Arab, Jewish, and other schoolgirls who had gone through the accelerated program and would soon start high school at the same facilities they had the program in. It was in the largest sports stadium in the West Bank, just east of Jerusalem. She hoped this would go well, since she'd recently started a correspondence with Dr Martin Luther King Jr. and he'd helped her write this speech. He was planning something similar, but in protest form, with regards to Negro rights and only really needed a casus belli. She agreed that she would give him support once there was a good reason to protest, and that if worst came to worst she would help his people escape through her own Neo-Underground Railroad i.e. her intel network.

"I see many of you have brought your extra hijabs like you were told, regardless of whether or not you are wearing one, to this demonstration, good, hang onto them until we are done here… Today we gather to celebrate the greatest demonstration of women's rights in the history of the world. Thousands of years ago, women began the struggle for the right to be equals to men, and it has taken those thousands of years of civilization, from the Stone Age to the modern day, for this victory! Today, we gather here to recognize the freedom womankind has fought and died for, fighting from the height advantage of morality while the oppressors would use any means necessary to try to crush us. But we were not defeated, though trodden underfoot for millennia we now mark the first and largest step toward equality, that of equal education. Never again shall mankind be able to claim intellectual superiority over us, never again shall mankind be able to claim superiority in civilized behaviour. But we must remember in this time of exultation that we must have dignity and discipline to hold the high ground of morality. We must not allow our time of liberation to degrade to physical violence, we must not allow our newly-gained rights to result in a distrust of all men, for many of our brothers, as evidenced by their presence here this day, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom and survival is tied to ours. We will not and do not tread this path of liberty alone!"

There were shouts of agreement from the male members of the crowd, seated as they were in rows upon rows of chairs, organized by name group and honour roll status, but with the males on the wings. "As we march onward toward the light of freedom, we pledge that we shall proceed ever onward. There are those who ask us women's rights advocates time and time again 'when will you be satisfied?' We will never be satisfied so long as women are subject to the unspeakable horrors of societal enslavement, so long as we are the victims of brutal oppression. We cannot be satisfied so long as our mobility is from one household to another. We can never be satisfied so long as our daughters are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of dignity by signs stating 'For Men Only'. We cannot be satisfied so long as a woman in our great and free nation can be prevented from voting by fear of her male family members, and other women, the downtrodden and broken, believe there is nothing for which to vote."

Operating on the supernatural instinct that seized her again at this moment Hannah Shepard threw herself sideways into a roll away from a bullet and snatched a rifle from one of her guards before firing off a few shots at the sniper in the rafters as soon as she could. The man fell down into the crowd, having lost his footing from a leg wound, and was immediately swarmed by the graduates sitting nearest to him and restrained. Soldiers arrived on the scene moments later to cuff the man and drag him off. "We are not satisfied, so long as anyone seeks to silence our cries, so long as anyone denies the fact that all men and women are equal. We are not satisfied so long as there are those who want to brainwash us into accepting their oppression. I am not unmindful of the fact that many of you had to fight off the influences of elders too rooted in the old ways to see change before you could join us here this day. Some of you have been rescued from abusive households, some from domineering husbands or even sons. You have been the victims of great and creative suffering, but know this! With education and your rights no future generations of women shall be trodden underfoot, no future generations of women will regard men as anything but equals. One day, and that day is today, we shall all stand fearlessly as one, man and woman, Muslim, Jew, Christian, Buddhist, and any other religion, White, Brown, Black, Asian, and all shall sing together those old words, 'We are free, we are free, we are free at last!' And so I summon you all to shout with me!" A great roar of approval went up before being led by the loudspeakers of the stadium in the words "We are free, we are free, we are free at last!"

The tens of thousands (they could only process so many at a time in the schools) of students went up to the front rank by rank to receive their certificates of graduation from the program. The Brigadiers and Colonels performed flawlessly, handing out the certificates in order, as they'd been handed stacks of certificates corresponding to the columns of seats they were responsible for, and there were very few mess-ups which were quickly swept aside. Hannah took care of the Honour Roll students herself. After the event ended without another hitch, she launched into her finishing speech "Now, you have all been given a certificate of graduation, but it is no mere piece of paper. It is evidence of your newfound freedom, your pass to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Rejoice, freed women of the West Bank, and the State of Palestine, for a new era has dawned upon us all!" She was the first to tear off her military hat and hurl it upward, and the assembled girls and women, following her cue, threw their hijabs up into the air in celebration as they cheered their freedoms one more time.

The graduates and their family members (where applicable) were taken home in convoys of trucks and APCs, escorted by Raider IICs, chattering excitedly about future plans. It was actually among the men who had attended to support their sisters, mothers, or daughters that the hints of the Shepard Cult first began to emerge. The main reasons for that were the modernization she had brought them, with every household in Palestine now supplied with running water (though the free supplies were very limited and rationed with water consumption meters, and money was charged beyond a certain point, determined by the head count of the family) and electricity. The free mandatory education and public healthcare also attracted a lot of support, even though it required taxation to fund, it was not much of a burden and much better than the taxes the British and French had levied in the area. At least these taxes were obviously doing something for their quality of life instead of funding war efforts far overseas. That was obviously with the exception of the portion of the Income Tax and Property Tax income the government had that was used to pay for SI's military services. Oh, and not to be forgotten was the fact that Shepard still looked about twenty despite being just about fifty-three point five years old. Yeah, that was probably the biggest selling point of the whispers of the cult.

In the meantime, Hannah was heading over to the Gaza Province, after ordering that the captured sniper be interrogated, to hold a similar ceremony there. She arrived at the stadium with her officers all fully briefed and ready with the stacks of certificates they were to hand out. This stadium had also been more thoroughly swept for snipers, so there were none left… though a roadside bomb damaged one of the Raider IICs in the convoy a bit (one jammed road wheel and a lot of scorched paint) en route. This time, the speech began with "I am sure you have seen the televised report of the earlier ceremonies, and I am sorry that it was not practical to gather ALL of you who have been found worthy of these new liberties in one place, but I still personally thank you for your calm and patience. The path to freedom will still be long and arduous, but do not lose heart, womankind's ultimate liberation is closer than you would think. The paragon which we seek, that of equality between the sexes, is closer than you think. We have yet a journey of a thousand miles ahead of us" Hannah was aware that she'd spent too long touring China and picked up on some proverbs relevant to revolutions and societal changes "but we have made many steps, and the end is not long coming. For now, however, we shall not only remember what lies ahead still, but celebrate this great victory in the name of freedom!"

The closing speech for that one was another drawn-out speech about freedoms, equality, life, love, liberty, and so on. However, it also included a clause on clothes when she clumsily tied a custom-made hijab with Generalissimo-rank insignia around her head during the speech while talking into the mikes still "If I want to wear a hijab, I will, but if the only reason to do so is that men pay too much attention to you otherwise, well, too bad. If they're too stupid to keep their eyes to themselves, that's their problem, if your pet likes to lick your face, does that mean you have to wear a visor? NO! It just means you have to train them not to. It's their problem, not yours, just because they're staring at you doesn't mean you have to cover up the back of your head, it is infinitely more practical to… come over here." She motioned one of her soldiers over and drew one of those eye-cover things people wear to sleep before putting it over his eyes before beginning to undo her head cloth "Cover their eyes instead, see? It costs less material too." She held her big head cloth up next to the small blindfold on the man's face to make her point. "Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying you shouldn't wear a hijab, these are very nice for keeping warm in the winter or at night, and can be quite nice to look at. The only problem is that if the only reason you wear it is because of MEN, then it becomes a glaring symbol of oppression and inequality." She had a bad feeling that comment, despite her display of non-fanaticism regarding not wearing the things, would come back to bite her in the ass someday.

Well, she would be right, but that is a later story for a later time in the form of the War On Terror. For now, she had more important things to attend to, such as one particular German Supreme Commander's wedding. Oh, and she also had to appear at the other big graduation ceremonies in Palestine over the next week… what fun.

* * *

><p><em>The last week of June, 1953<em>

"GREAT, now HOW DID WE GET INTO THIS SITUATION AGAIN?" Hannah shouted from behind a wall made of bleachers as bullets whizzed overhead. The schoolgirls had all been taken hostage and she'd walked into a trap, though instinct saved her again.

"MAYBE IT'S BECAUSE YOU AGREED TO ATTEND THESE CEREMONIES?" A soldier to her left yelled over the explosions of rocket launchers going off outside the relatively newly built theatre which they'd decided to use for this ceremony, and the crash of tank fire.

"I know, alright?" She was hearing the sounds of someone getting first aid to her right with the ripping of gauze and the grunts of wounded. She fired blindly over the top of her cover at the assailants coming from all sides, and let her body go into autopilot, ducking whichever way her instincts told her. According to her father it had been an ancestral thing that she'd inherited from his family, but who cared where it came from? It was useful, and that was what mattered in the here and now as she threw herself down before an RPG went overhead and exploded a few rows back to screams of pain and shouts of a language that was distinctly not English, which all her troops were to speak in combat, and probably not even Arabic. She was pretty sure it sounded… Hebrew? Yiddish? Something like that…which was odd. Anyhow, she fired through the gap between two chairs and mowed down two men before flipping over the row of seats in front of her and firing her SMG one-handed forward. A pistol round silenced the man who'd tried to shoot her under the chairs just now forever, and from the sounds of things quieting down outside, with the booming of cannon being the final word, her troops were winning, just like how they were winning inside the theatre. Finally came the liberation of the hostages, a delicate situation that required constant weapons fire up front to make the terrorists believe the fight was still going while snipers zeroed in on them and assault troops gathered outside their doors.

The final body count of the surprise attack came to fifty-seven assailants inside and outside the theatre, in exchange for seven SI dead, three disabled for life, and seven wounded. She hated when soldiers under her employ died or were crippled, it made her guilty enough on the inside that she'd instituted a generous benefit policy, though she knew it could never be enough, hence her demands for ever-superior (quality and/or quantity) hardware.

Hannah herself was nursing a wound on her left hand where it had been cut by a splinter of wood from a chair blown up by an RPG, and she didn't include herself in the wounded count as she knew it would heal fairly quickly. Within a week, all that would remain would be a scar, and a month later, not even that would stay, she didn't know why she healed this way, but Jane did too. Obviously it had something to do with their heritage, but that didn't matter for now. She needed to get the certificates out and make the best she could of this situation. The students were ordered to line up by the code their tickets gave them, and were handed their certificates, some with bullet holes or scorch marks, and some needing to use the extras she had fortunately had on hand in case of loss. Still, every graduate got a certificate.

"Today, we fought and overcame the best efforts of those who would oppress us. Today, womankind scored a great victory. Today, we triumphed, it is a day of justice, freedom, and liberation." She shouted to the crowd from the stage, since the loudspeakers had been ruined. "Today we cast off the shadows mankind tries to throw on us and emerge into the light as equals, rejoice, for millennia of tyranny has ended and will never come again so long as a woman draws breath! This is the death of inequality and the birth of hope!"

Once the crowd cleared out and she went back to her command tank, looking at the wreckage of a mauled APC sitting nearby, she slumped into her seat and sighed "That… was tedious."

"But at least it's over now." One of her tank crew members replied simply.

"True, I guess… next thing I have to do…" she sighed, maybe Gunter's wedding wouldn't be so exciting…

* * *

><p>AN: Hannah is going to HATE the fact that she's going to get a personal cult following, and it'll be a lot of trouble between the First and Second Tiberium Wars, but otherwise, all is good. Anyhow, **the next chapter will see Hannah get a bunch of head injuries, can anyone guess how?**

I recently learnt of the next WOW expansion, and have decided it is too insane to include, unless I have the Pandaren and the other Pandaria sentients be the results of a bunch of messy bio lab experiments conducted by Azeroth's Monitor. I mean, just because they've watched Kung Fu Panda a few times too many doesn't mean… ugh.

If you feel like reviewing, go ahead, if you don't, don't. I get the impression that saying "review!" in capital letters just annoys people.


	5. A Marriage of Technologies

A/N: WTF is wrong with FFN? Every once in a while it disables my Private Messaging and most of my e-mail alerts?

Ah well, enough of a rant, here it will be shown that the survival instinct does not cover non-life-threatening injuries, and that Hannah can in fact not pay attention to her surroundings.

I AM DISAPPOINTED, The first time I didn't bother putting "REVIEW!" at the end of a chapter, I only get TWO reviews, great, I thought it would be more reviews for me being less annoying.

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><p>Chapter 5: A Marriage of Technologies<p>

_July, 1953_

Things had started out great, Hannah meeting Gunter and his fiancée, and congratulating them before the wedding and after she reached Berlin (for obvious reasons). The wedding preparations were hectic, as expected.

What Hannah did NOT expect was the "Really Big Truck" as the guests were colloquially calling it pulling up next to the group and Jane jumping down from the driver's cab to share a big hug with her older sister. Of course, it wasn't very close as their chests were in the way, but that was beside the point other than for the younger males present who raised their eyebrows at the gesture. Things went downhill very, VERY quickly from there, since Hannah knew altogether too well what Jane preparing to go on a full lecture looked like.

Jane had started chattering as soon as they were separate, gesturing toward the vehicle "Behold, the Mobile Construction Vehicle, Mark One, or, as the coding goes, A-MCV-1953A."

"It does NOT look like a gantry that can move around putting buildings together." Hannah commented dryly, since that was her idea of an MCV, a mobile gantry, although this thing did look less exposed to enemy fire "it looks like a truck with a funny payload…"

"It expands hydraulically into what we are calling a Construction Yard, ConYard for short. The process takes quite a few moments, but can be re-packed given some time. The structural plates that a ConYard is assembled from provide a lot of protection for the hull, but the amount of machinery in the thing makes it rather… cumbersome despite our best efforts. It's meant for deployment of civilian buildings and such in the aftermath of disasters, or whenever it is needed, mostly I think it should be contract work."

"Good work, sister, good work, can I see the inside?" Never mind, things weren't going downhill, AT ALL.

"Certainly, Hannah, I would be glad to show you the controls for the thing." Jane's eyes twinkled, then they climbed into the vehicle's front and started gesturing at the dashboard after closing the doors. "Yes, I was thinking what you think I was thinking."

"Good, because Gunter's been commenting on how his subordinates are looking to buying some, and I quote, 'big things' from us. These it?"

"Yep, the first successful packing of everything that a ConYard entails into a single vehicle, and the German Army wants to be first to try it out after seeing how effective the rapid deployment defences were on the Niigata Line. Economic busts after the war really made everyone want to fight cheap, and MCVs offer greater mobility than other options too, especially in counter-insurgencies, even though they're glacially slow at making turns, they can still manage a decent speed on straight runs."

"Great, and I suppose we'll get something better?"

"Of course, Hannah, I'm your sister for a reason, you know?"

Hannah had the same evil smirk Jane had "Yep."

* * *

><p>The wedding was standard fare and extremely boring, so Hannah zoned out thinking about the next MCV she would field herself, until a bunch of sharp objects hit her in the head. They impacted above her now customary protective goggles—she'd seen men be blinded by shrapnel or blood running into their eyes enough to wear the goggles out of paranoia—and bounced off, leaving painful little stab holes. She was in a crouching position and had her SMG off its usual position in front of her chest in an instant before realizing there was no threat, everyone was silent, then burst out laughing, as Gunter's new wife had just, at his behest, chucked the bouquet at her. The next time she was attending a wedding, she was going to wear a full visor, or so help her if someone decides to throw a bouquet of roses at her face again…<p>

"Sorry I wasn't paying attention, Gunter." Hannah stated later while they were standing around watching everyone else swap partners in the dancing, Jane had similarly opted to decline the dancing and was standing on Gunter's other side with one hand on her pistol handle.

Gunter smiled, eyes still glued to his bride, who was now sharing a dance with her father "It's alright, I should have expected you to be busy thinking over the MCV… what an invention, Jane outdid herself on this one."

Hannah grinned wider "Yeah, she sure did." She changed the topic "Better hope she isn't jealous with you sandwiched between your ex-superiors."

Jane rolled her eyes and then began talking through the man at her sister "Hannah, you're over-thinking this, Gunter only has eyes for his lover, doesn't he?" She pinched the man's cheek and pulled rather painfully, ignoring his yowl of protest and winking at the bride, finally prompting Gunter to look away from her. Both his new wife and her father laughed before she came over and spirited him away, telling Jane to not hurt her groom too badly because he needed to have his face functional for the night. Three of the four people present laughed while Gunter facepalmed and pulled his new wife (former SI soldier, hence the liberalness) away for another dance.

"You know, they may be happy right now, but they'll only hurt each other with time, sooner or later." Jane observed.

Hannah frowned at her redheaded sister "When'd you get so experienced with romance?"

"Sis, didn't you notice how I voluntarily stayed behind to watch things back home? You get to campaign all around the world and make it ours while I keep up the flow of men and supplies to you, it gives me a lot more time to wander around, date men, sample what the world has to offer, and I liked it that way… for quite a while." The redhead bowed her head a bit and frowned "You date men for a couple years and they start thinking you're a piece of property. I've broken up with quite a few guys, two when they were down on one knee, sister, and some others with bullets because they were assassins. It's the price we pay for our power, the price we must pay for leading womankind to freedom in the parts of the world we touch."

"Freedom isn't free, I guess, you gotten laid yet?"

"Nah, I saw how useless relationships with ones who are likely to only live a fraction of our life expectancy are. They make you happy for a bit, then they start taking you for granted, and finally resenting you for holding out when you think the pace of your relationship is just perfect. I guess I haven't gotten used to the fact that most people don't see eighty when we're likely at that age to still look the way we did when we were twenty."

"That is the curse of the Old Families, Jane, that is our curse. We think of things in the long term, are less greedy, and are colder, until we find someone that can really make us flare up. At least, that's how it is now." Hannah stated, downing another drink. "We can't dwell on it, we have to move ahead with life."

"Right, we need to do that if we want to fulfill your dream of controlling 40% of the world, or my dream of helping you out and tagging along." Jane had never wanted to top her sister, simply because where she was, she was sheltered and had almost as much power. The little bit of extra power her sister had was to Jane not worth the trouble and stress that campaigning around the world, always on the move, eating military rations and such, brought on Hannah. Jane tried to make the rations and such good, but there was always a limit on how good mass-produced canned food could be. Hannah on the other hand absolutely relished the windward side of their operations, hence they complemented each other perfectly and each was at her happiest doing what the other didn't like. No sibling clashes here, that was for sure.

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><p><em>May, 1954<em>

The doctrine behind the MCV was fairly simple: Get in, establish a forward base, build up one's forces, on the spot if need be. One MCV and a hundred vehicle crews with vehicles in crate form were easier to transport/smuggle than a full armoured column. Also, an MCV's firebase could support other operations in the form of defensive turrets, pillboxes, AA Guns, concrete wall blocks and of course sandbags. This was in addition to war factories where crated vehicles could be assembled in minutes, field radar stations to enhance detection of the enemy, and barracks structures where troops could be housed while in the field. Personally, she preferred her own system, since an APC was far more mobile than a building, and better armed too. Vehicles were also easier to handle than the redundant power grid needed to power all the defences and buildings that would be set up in the field, which required power generator structures that were easy to take out… too easy for her liking.

Of course, fielding full armies were expensive, and concentrating one's forces so much could leave one open to counterattacks, so maybe there was some sense in the MCV method after all. That was NOT to suggest that the idea of Field Refineries allowing commanders to strip-mine materials on the battlefield via Ore Miner, and then use it for raw materials to help offset the costs of war, was remotely sane from her perspective. Wars were not won by being CHEAP ABOUT IT!

Unfortunately, the world economy was sliding so badly, starting with the US and even affecting her somewhat, that she actually had to cut back a little on R&D spending and focus more on other things, such as figuring out what went wrong. She had a very good idea as to what happened, it began with her troops kidnapping a highly corrupt AMERICAN businessman form Wall Street and stealing all his documents, then blaring them across the mass media using her behind-the-scenes media control. The man had been selling bad loans, then betting on the failure of those loans, a typical sort of bubble in the economy that if allowed to grow too big could mean a full-scale depression like the 30s. She had to prevent that, pop the bubble before it was cataclysmically large, to maintain her business profits and prevent a major depression, but she was too late.

Apparently the man had a failsafe, since the one time she'd interrogated him, after the economy started crashing, he had laughed goofily at her and told her she was screwed. Well, after she'd dispersed her personnel from all major installations for now, in case of bombs, she shot him in the back of the head after throwing him face-down in a ditch. Then he'd been run over several times by her tank, cremated by flamethrower, and finally the remains dumped in the sea in a bag weighed down by of all things a depth charge (made sure the shit got scattered, that's for sure). Well, if nothing else, one good things came out of it, her MCVs and vehicle crate system became hugely popular almost overnight as military budgets were cut and governments lost money all around the world. That was great, now if those motherfuckers at the top of Wall Street suddenly died that would be wonderful, well, a woman could dream… She knew full well that her Black Ops squadrons stationed all over the planet could get the job done if she activated them, but for now, it wasn't worth it.

They weren't threatening her much, except for banks falling, which she'd pre-empted by storing her wealth in the form of raw materials. In fact Wall Street had helped her business by making all the Allies, the countries affected by this depression, buy up her MCVs really eagerly, along with packaged Gun Turrets, AA Guns, Barracks, War Factories, Radar Domes, Pillboxes, etc. The 110mm gun had completed testing in time to be fitted to the turret, and that made the triangular structures (on square base assemblies) probably one of the premier anti-armour weapons outside the USSR. The Soviet Union was the one country she had almost no agents in and didn't know too much about except that Stalin was bat-shit crazy and if she assassinated him with a surprise infiltration—they would expect such a move, which was why it would work this time from her reputation of doing the unexpected—someone crazier may well step up to bat. That would be BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD.

* * *

><p>Archivists' Note: Okay, so there were less A's in the Generalissimo's diary entry, only eight, but we were allowed to take certain creative liberties with irrelevant facts, such as not bothering to cite the exact numbers of vehicles in an engagement unless it was a very small number i.e. under 20 on any belligerent's side.<p>

* * *

><p>Also bad was the news that the Soviets were designing their own MCV based off stolen schematics obtained from the Allies. Basically it meant making the same damned thing but without giving her any money, which she didn't like, as less money meant cutbacks to projects to expand her support base. It was already hard enough to stay primarily legitimate and do business "the right way" i.e. honestly, but it did mean a good reputation and people willing to do business. It also meant when her Black Ops cells implanted in her business associations all over the world did anything no one openly doubted jack shit, but that was more as they rarely did anything at all. Still, business was acceptable and she had public opinion firmly behind her as she basically prevented the Canadian economy from crashing single-handedly. Because of the sheer amount of power she wielded, the Canadian Government couldn't do shit about her, so, if they couldn't beat her, they joined her, and it was paying off for them and for the country. Basically, they were just getting taken along for the ride on a rising star that could now be qualified definitely as a Great Power, and political deniability was just a plus. none had yet dared try to control her, and few had even suggested things after Mackenzie King died, though she always considered them so the incidence of suggestions was starting to slowly rise.<p>

That was good, any good parliamentary monarch embraced good advice and assimilated it, and she was essentially that monarch in all her territories and Client States. She was aware that a number of her reforms, such as legislation against discrimination in workplace recruitment, had been unpopular in her Client States to begin with. However they had been eased in over good time and mainly after the people were dependent on and thoroughly appeased by their new freedoms or benefits. She wanted to be a towering paragon of humanity, but she knew she could never be that, not after all the blood that has stained her boots as they squelched their way through battlefields toward the front lines. That meant she had to do what was needed to keep mankind's decency, mankind's paragon spirit, alive. She knew she was no paragon, for no paragon would okay the use of sandblasters as an execution weapon, but she was a pragmatist, and knew when to stop. She was also a woman, as long as she didn't spawn any offspring—she swore she would never have children, at least not in the next forty years—she was far less likely to be swayed by foolish distractions and hormones than men. Perhaps that was what the world really needed, an ice queen who could make the hard decisions when truly needed.

* * *

><p><em>March, 1955<em>

Hannah Shepard finished splashing water on her face and wiped her hands before grabbing the telephone in her private suite. "Hannah Shepard here, who is it?" Only a handful of people had her direct number, and they would only call her directly if it was real business. "Doctor King, how may I help you?"

Her eyes flashed dangerously moments later as Martin Luther King Jr. laid it out to her "A 15-year-old black girl named Claudette Colvin was arrested from a public bus in Montgomery, Alabama when she refused to vacate her seat for a white woman who was standing."

"You know what we do in my territory against this sort of regulation, right?" She stated simply, twirling a pen in her other hand absently.

"Yeah, and I wish I lived in Palestine, you've vetoed, silenced or quashed almost all the discrimination there. I know that sometimes the quashing gets too literal, but at least it could work. Here we need to use softer methods."

Namely, that meant sometimes it was up to her to whip the mobs into a frenzy via broadcast or speech before pointing them at an extremist group just before the extremists were arrested by provincial police with her troops' armoured support. Then the troops would hold back the mobs (to make the troops look righteous), parking armoured vehicles to do so if needed, and she would preach something about "We are better than them and should not resort to violent methods, we need only denounce their cause, to win. If they turn violent, Shepard Industries' soldiers will protect you all from them, your biggest contribution to this fight for the rights and freedoms of all mankind is to denounce their cause, refuse to fear them."

King continued "She'd been yelling that it was her constitutional right, and they're charging her with assault and violating the segregation law. There was no assault, she just stood there."

"Should I get someone to remind them of just which country they live in? Which country pioneered the rights and freedoms of all mankind?" That referred to America "Don't worry, it'll take a few years to get them to turn around."

King rolled his eyes, he knew that meant a series of Denied Ops to silence (i.e. make vanish) a random few of the more vocal segregation fans. "No, we'll do this the right way, see if there is justice still left in the world. If not, then feel free to bring on the four knights of the Apocalypse." In other words, he was saying that if the case failed at the US Supreme Court, then she was free to deal with some of the more rabid segregationists in the American South in whatever manner she wanted to deal with them.

"Alright, I'm hoping you're at least organizing a boycott of the bus service then? I'll give you my endorsement if you do."

"Well, no, she's not the perfect, above-doubt victim, because she's pregnant, but if something like this happens again, I'll keep that in mind. Thanks for the offer of endorsement."

"Don't mention it, Doctor, you're an old friend, all for the cause of equality."

King smiled on the other side "All for the cause of equality."

* * *

><p><em>December, 1955<em>

Rosa Parks' story seemed quite inflammatory to Hannah Shepard. She was part of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People, which Hannah supported, and was an investigator assigned to cases of sexual assault. In 1943, she'd been ordered by driver James F. Blake to enter through the back door of a bus, but he drove off before she could board and she vowed never to ride a bus he drove again. On Thursday, December 1, 1955, she was in the front-most row for black people, a white man boarded the bus, and the driver told her row to move back to create a new row for whites. She realized to her horror that it was Blake driving… she refused and was arrested for failing to follow the driver's seat assignments. On December 5, 1955, she was found guilty and fined 10$ plus a court cost of 4$. She appealed, and the case, the perfect case, had been found for the local NAACP chapter's president, E.D. Nixon, and the leader of the negro rights movement in the area, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., to test the rules of Montgomery, and the democracy of the United States of America.

The Montgomery Improvement Association was thus formed. The night after Parks' arrest, the head of the Women's Political Council had printed and circulated a flyer reading "Another woman has been arrested and thrown in jail because she refused to get up out of her seat on the bus for a white person to sit down. It is the second time since the Claudette Colvin case that a Negro woman has been arrested for the same thing. This has to be stopped. Negroes have rights too, for if Negroes did not ride the buses, they could not operate. Three-fourths of the riders are Negro, yet we are arrested, or have to stand over empty seats. If we do not do something to stop these arrests, they will continue. The next time it may be you, or your daughter, or mother. This woman's case will come up on Monday. We are, therefore, asking every Negro to stay off the buses Monday in protest of the arrest and trial. Don't ride the buses to work, to town, to school, or anywhere on Monday. You can afford to stay out of school for one day if you have no other way to go except by bus. You can also afford to stay out of town for one day. If you work, take a cab, or walk. But please, children and grown-ups, don't ride the bus at all on Monday. Please stay off all buses Monday."

King's response was a set of flyers stating "A carpooling service has been arranged so that all Negroes in the city of Montgomery will be able to travel to and from work." He had also phoned Hannah about the impending boycott, with the result that over the next few days almost one thousand Protected Vans as they were called arrived in the city. Namely, that meant thick doors designed to crumple but not collapse on impact, almost exaggerated fenders, and low frames designed to soak up impacts and allow the passengers to survive without incident. The professional crews of the vehicles, drawn from the Logistics Brigades stationed in Canada, were rotated out once per month over the next several months.

Black Taxi drivers charged ten cents per ride, same as the bus fare, to support the boycott, and on December 8 city officials ordered cops to fine any taxi driver who charged less than 45 cents. It was fortunate that they were using Protected Vans, since the city pressured local insurance companies to stop insuring carpool vehicles, then started ramming them with cars and buses (fewer riders meant less buses needed, i.e. more extra ones to maraud around) specially modified for the purpose. After a number of fatalities—there were no wounded as they were promptly run over several more times by the city's attack-dog vehicles to kill them, even white people supporting the boycott—everyone withdrew to using the Protected Vans, which were very distinctive and would trash a car when rammed by one instead of itself being trashed. As for buses, Protected Vans were typically strong enough to survive, and the two professional soldiers crewing each meant that physical attacks were quickly and effectively dealt with. However, lack of permission to open fire meant things got a bit difficult at times, especially as they had to wait for the enemy to fire first or obviously have the intent to fire first before using their SMGs and rocket launchers to neutralize the threat.

Multiple cases of violence ensured between the ultraconservative White Citizens' Council and "the Peacekeepers" as they were being called across the nation. Martin Luther King's home was burnt to the ground by firebombing, and he was arrested along with 155 others for "hindering a bus". This resulted in a national outrage against the White Citizens' Council and Eisenhower authorizing SI to enter the area of Montgomery for Peacekeeping operations (to keep his own hands clean and the situation under control). Notably, one famous video shot by a reporter on one of the Protected Vans included a side-on collision with a bus steered their way, this was just before the engine was gunned for all it was worth and the van escaped being pushed over the side of a bridge. The bus stopped and began to turn ponderously back the way it came before the van fled in the same direction (still following its delivery route). Rifle fire came from the bus in volleys and pinged off the thick, sloped bulletproof glass at the rear of the van. The camera captured it perfectly, the small crack marks from ricocheting bullets, the screaming and sobbing of the passengers who were bent over, their hands on the backs of their heads. Many were praying as the passenger (and passenger regulator) of the van cursed into the external loudspeakers "Motherfuckers, we have women and children onboard and are just making a regular delivery, God damn it!"

The bus honked its horn and fired some more in return, and the eyes of the passenger, who was looking back, widened "Rocket!" The driver swerved hard to the right to the center lane of the two lanes of the bridge on their side, but the explosion was still enough to lift the six left-side wheels, despite the skirt armour, off the road momentarily before it all came crashing back down and rolled on. "We are giving you one more chance to stand down, imbeciles!" The passenger roared, pulling back the bolt on his SMG and releasing it would a loud clack, though he kept the safety on for now. A few more cracks of rifle fire hitting the back windshield sealed the deal, and he popped the topside cupola, raising his gun up and disengaging the safety he fired a stream of bullets back at the bus, only exposing his gun and hands. SI-designed SMGs had the handle ahead of the clip, with a long barrel, so the round was actually fairly powerful, enough to puncture the bus's front glass before the soldier walked the trail of bullets over the driver. The vehicle immediately accelerated as the driver died, though someone else grabbed the wheel from the dead man to keep it under control and the bazooka was preparing to fire again through the window. Another shout of alarm made the van swerve hard left as they finished the bridge's length, the bazooka blowing a crater in an intersection as the bus roared by, several other vehicles settling on their tail.

A long shoot-out followed, resulting in the destruction of all the pursuit vehicles and ending with the bus coming out from ahead of them. The Ram rocket launcher the soldiers finally brought out from the dashboard's hidden compartment was, at last, put to good use to total the vehicle. Then the passenger jumped out and cuffed all the militants that were left. Finally they called in support and the men were carted away for interrogation before the Montgomery police could interfere. Eisenhower found the incident so embarrassing that he declared it an FBI case but in fact let Hannah handle the business. It, well, all of Alabama, was a hot potato, if she was willing to deal with it and take it off his hands, so much the better.

* * *

><p>AN: Plausible engine powers give here for V16 diesel engines, which today range from 4000 to 6000 horsepower, 2500 isn't that insane.

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><p><em>January, 1956<em>

For once, Hannah Shepard had quite some time to relax without wars or crises, other than Algeria, the new country, signing itself up as a Client State as part of the final peace agreement between the French Fourth Republic under Du Galle (Daladier had retired in 1953). She had helped broker the peace, and the French weren't satisfied until the Algerians agreed to sign up as one of her Client States. Since in today's France it was political suicide for a politician to align himself fully against her, the French had seen the option as a good way out while still keeping Algeria under the watchful eyes of an Allied faction.

Now it was time to go to the field testing of the A-MCV-1956A, which would mean the vehicle was also rated for snowy terrain. Unlike the 1953 series (now at model C after some complaints were addressed), the 1956 series mounted TWO powerful diesel engines, and used track pods, four to be exact, to move around. Still, even with the four pods promising far greater manoeuvrability than the wheeled arrangement of the 1953s, it was a rather ponderous vehicle, even though it, unlike the 1953, could turn on the spot, with the needed adjustments of course, and only when packed up. That being said it was also much wider than the 1953 and wouldn't fit through one-lane roads and such well, which was another thing hopefully alleviated by the wide track pods.

With all the hydraulics that went into deploying an MCV, Jane had conceived a way in which the deployment could be easily reversed using hydraulic systems as parts of the suspension. The track pods were each armoured on four sides, top, front, back and outward face, and would usually be tucked under the massive vehicle's frame. This was another concern, that the thing was too tall to pass under bridges, unlike the 1953, but some aspects of it, namely the top-mounted turret and the oversized dozer blades it could employ, to the irritation of local infrastructure management, made that irrelevant. Then again the ConYard could manufacture the necessary parts after it passed the bridge wreck and redeployed, then fixed the bridge before leaving the area after a victory, no? If it was a defeat and retreat, then it would hinder the enemy, all the better then.

Of course, bridge blasting really only applied to low bridges, and the 300-ton MCV-1956 was about as slow as the 160-ton MCV-1953, and couldn't pass over most bridges without collapsing them, unless it used the Segmentation Option as the crews called it. Since it had two engines and four track pods, it could actually disengage the locks between the front and back sections, loosen up the locked armour plating much as it did when deploying, retract them completely from the gap of the equatorial bulkheads (not done when deploying) and split in half. Each half could cross most bridges separately without risk of collapse, something which had been what restricted the mass of the MCV-1953. Whereas the old MCV could run at 35 km/h with its 2500 horsepower diesel engine (V16 ) and half-track drive train on a road or flat surface, the new one could, with two 2500 horsepower engines and tracked drive train, make 25 km/h cross-country, though the maximum safe on-road speed was still only 35 km/h even on long, straight stretches.

The transmission system had both engines contributing to the same drive train while the Separator Shunt allowed each engine to only power its own set of pods. The front engine also got the forward turret, mounting a 110mm gun with all the ammunition stowed inside. The gun had been fitted with an experimental autoloader that was not still fully reliable, and was controlled from the main cockpit of the vehicle. The turret was considered expendable and if pierced (highly unlikely) would fly up with the blast of ammunition coking off and hopefully away when exploding, hence leaving the rest of the thick top-front armour of the MCV only scorched and not breached… hopefully. That turret had 360-degree traverse, but elevation was restricted by the traverse angle from between 10 degrees down and 35 up from the horizontal when facing directly forward to between 10 degrees up and 55 degrees up when pointing straight back. The reason was that the armour itself was sloped 10 degrees down from the horizontal, and on the inside of the innermost layer (these slid kind of telescopically and locked when deploying to make room) supported a lot of the gantry mechanisms that the ConYard would use when deployed. Hannah and Jane had to work closely with R&D squads to develop structures small and weaponized enough to be convenient for the ConYard to assemble, even in parts.

Sure, there was still the SI Field Barracks, SI War Factory, Radar Dome, Gun Turret, Power Plant, Pillbox, Camo Pillbox, and AA Gun as the standard structures the thing could put together, but Hannah had decided to forgo the inclusion of Refinery schematics for now as her units were shipped the crates on demand and didn't have to have field commanders paying. According to her contacts, even the Soviets had adopted the Field Refinery system to ease the strain on their shitty logistics system. Besides, she couldn't understand the point of having everything important stand still and wait for artillery fire. Maybe for the sake of mobile warfare they could… no, that didn't sound doable yet, the MCV wasn't big enough to house lots of vehicle crews yet without being too large to be convenient or really even mobile. As for the SI designator before the barracks and war factory, that indicated the inclusion of several machine guns in each, unlike the other factions, which had nothing on their Barracks or War Factories.

Her MCV also included a S-WM-15C mount on the rear part of the hull, which meant a dual 40mm AA Gun turret could be fitted, or other weapon systems as they came out. For now it was restricted to mounting the "Dual Forty", which functioned as an effective weapon against light vehicles or massed infantry, but which would likely not be very good against aircraft as it was only one turret with two guns. Hence she was determined that an MCV never enter a combat zone without significant escort of either armoured units or mechanized infantry. It may be more costly than others who merely send crews and logistics up through their supply lines, but if it got the battles won then that was the whole point of war. War wasn't meant to be something that could be economical for the belligerents, or drawn-out, that would only increase collateral damage in all respects…

Well, it was time to observe the MCV deploying, un-deploying, and building stuff now… though Hannah wished they didn't have to be in the Northwest Territories for this, it did make a point if the MCV was driven all the way up here from Toronto without need for maintenance. The 1953 had been tested the same way. After clearing all the snow from a relatively flat area of the tundra using its lowered dozer blade, the MCV-1956A parked itself in one end of said flat area, pointed toward the un-cleared snow. The hydraulics on the track pods got to work as the pods moved slowly in reverse to aid the transformation. In mere seconds the pods had all been inclined 45 degrees from the heading of the vehicle, all four with their rear sides pushed outward. The telescoping adaptive transmission took it in stride and kept working as the vehicle itself backed up, spreading the pods. When the rear hydraulics neared their limit the forward ones pushed the front ends of all four massive pods outward. This was just before the front pods began to roll forward and the rear ones back as the armour of the sides shifted and seemed to elongate, plates sliding past each other and locking together to make the vehicle longer, wider, and thus more spacious for construction jobs.

Soon it became far longer than it had been as the thin bulkheads that were used in the Segmentation Option and damage control were disassembled and contributed to double-layered portions of the hull. Then four large braces (basically hydraulic pistons with big brace areas) descended from the vehicle's lower hull and kept it in a controlled descent while strips of side armour moved and the transmission system unlocked and slid up into the side hull along the gaps so that no significant area of the vehicle or its systems was really exposed (even the bottom was armoured to an extent and had a double hull). Then the big vehicle began working inside while the topside radar and turrets swept the local area for threats, not that there should have been any right now.

Construction crews in the MCV's convoy (all MCVs had a small convoy of construction vehicles tagging along) set to work as soon as the rear doors of the big vehicle opened and the first components of a power plant rolled out, namely the base of the structure. The dozer blades of the (this time legit) bulldozers cleared an area in the tundra enough that quick-set bolts, in the form of firing a glorified recoilless rifle down into the ground with a long bolt for the projectile, could penetrate into the permafrost and the building's base could be thus secured. Then the first floor was bolted onto that via the insertion of thick steel I-beams into the molded holes in the base. Finally the top floor of the Power Plant was bolted onto the bottom one, then came assembly of the Field Barracks, which also went fairly quickly as crates of packaged structures were converted into functional prefab buildings. It was marginally slower than a 1953 ConYard would be, in that parts and products had to use the same doors, but much more protected, much better armed, significantly larger, and could assemble sturdier buildings than the somewhat flimsier ones the 1953 ConYard had to make do with.

* * *

><p>AN: Have you seen the size of the MCV in RA 1? The cockpit is absurdly huge compared to a tank… let's assume the tanks are under-scaled and the ore/MCV trucks and Infantry are the correct scale, alright? Otherwise things just look really ugly since in cut-scenes the MCV only has a tractor-trailer cab size even if I exaggerate. And yes I know I sound like I'm talking about a Crawler MCV with the 1956A, but rest assured we are nowhere near that stage of automation yet, Hannah doesn't like the complicated process of packing/unpacking a whole set-piece building, that's all, so she came up with a bit of a compromise. It also can't assemble units inside practically, hence we are far from the Crawler generation.

* * *

><p>On the other hand, the 1956A was infinitely faster at running away, since it just had to tuck in the expanded armoured sides, boost itself up on its braces, lock in the transmission once the main hull has risen enough and move a small distance to tuck the pods back in fully (the hull expanded after the pods, and shrunk before them). Then it could run away, whereas the 1953 required actual manual disassembly of, well, just about EVERYTHING before it could be packed together again, again mostly manually, as the expansion system wasn't as advanced, though the C version could deal with the closer parts of the retraction on its own, this was still a big step up.<p>

True, it was a lot heavier than the MCV-1953s, but it was also one hell of a lot tougher when compacted, and could hold its own in a fight against any known tank. Of course, the autoloader, despite being faster than a man, was still a bit iffy, in that it would jam every once in a while, typically once per about sixty to eighty firings, but that was acceptable to most of the crews. "I prefer clearing jams once for every three mass reloads of ammunition than sitting in there all the time" the test gunner stated dryly (the thing was reloaded through a reinforced hatchway from the inside of the MCV). The turret actually held, in wet stowage, 30 shells of mixed HEAT and sabot ammunition for the 65-calibre smoothbore (discovered to be better for HEAT warheads by Mohaupt's research squad) gun, but reloads were more frequent than that to make sure neither type ran low. The gun itself was partly based off the British L7, which was a good gun, equipped with a good mechanism that could be scaled up and modified for auto-loading.

Still, the MCV-1956A was being officially tested, though Hannah left, according to her journal, after the fiftieth time it packed, unpacked, and tested part of its hardware, even if it was the disassembly of packaged structures… and their subsequent reassembly using electric welders powered by the MCV's engines.

All in all, the MCV-1956 had passed its last tests, and was going to be approved for mass production as soon as that damned autoloader was fully reliable. For now, they would simply produce the vehicles without the autoloaders and install those later after the first official production model came out. This was of course excluding the ones actually to be shipped out to units on the line—First through Fourth Divisions in North Korea, Fifth and Sixth Divisions in Palestine, and Seventh through Tenth Divisions in Germany—for field testing. Many soldiers, when surveyed, claimed that for a machine that could load and fire shells half again as fast as a man one jam in about seventy loadings was acceptable. However the survey had taken a week to tally up to agreement of deployment and so the first actual production units did not reach the front lines until March 1956.

* * *

><p>Perhaps that was a good thing considering the storm clouds gathering along the horizon as the borders of Soviet-aligned Poland, Slovakia, and Romania. They had been aligned with the Soviets since a few years after the war, when the US Marshall Plan didn't quite reach them enough and the USSR poured resources into them. After that, everyone suspected a reign of terror, but only a few agents were still available to report on conditions inside the Soviet client states. Still, Hannah and Jane shared Eisenhower's worries regarding the possibility of a new war, especially with the economy so far in the dumps that it could not be swiftly mobilized enough to battle the giant army of the USSR directly. Hence they were at the "North American Air Defence Conference" as it was being referred to now, the Conference itself had wound down and now they were having idle chatter.<p>

"Sometimes, I question if full capitalism is the best way to run a country, Wall Street really did a number on us." Eisenhower stated quietly "Initially we made a lot of money out of the mess, but setting up bread lines and so on across the country again, along with the hurricanes these past years, it's hurting pretty bad."

"That's why I run a socialist society with limited capitalism, Mr. President. It encourages innovation and the lower classes to strive to rise up in society and at the same time keeps the upper classes from becoming a threat to our power." Hannah stated with a light chuckle. "I appreciate making money out of hard work or creativity, I do not appreciate making money out of swindling, which is why loan selling in my territories is strictly forbidden."

"Yeah, and how am I going to push that past Congress? It is filled with the power and influence of the biggest capitalists in the world, I don't think a switch over to socialism would benefit them unless it was an oligarchy… which thus far every socialism has turned out to be. You and your sister hold the real power over your client states, and even Canada, but you've only used the veto twice when the parliaments tried to go back on your reforms near the beginning. Still, that's technically a monarchy-type system. I can't exactly outlaw loan selling, the biggest source of any economic bubble, because Congress would never pass it. You know, with the right people in charge, a constitutional monarchy does have its benefits." Eisenhower sighed.

"I guess, but it takes a lot to be at the top and not be swayed by one's own power. It is the burden of being powerful." They both knew she would have said "Burden of the Throne" if it wasn't considered offensive to be in charge of a dictatorship. "With great power, comes great responsibility, especially when your decisions affect the lives of millions."

There was a long silence "Well, at least you're helping keep the slaughter to a minimum down in Alabama, without making it look like I'm taking sides. I never quite thanked you for that. Fighting alongside your men really opened my eyes as to what brotherhood and unity can do."

"Don't mention it, Mr. President, I'm just glad you gave me the opportunity."

* * *

><p><em>July, 1956<em>

The first actual field deployments of the MCV-1956A that weren't for testing purposes occurred on 26 July, 1956 when Nasser moved ahead with a move that Hannah had sort of okayed back in the Treaty of 1952. A series of firebases popped up in rapid succession all along the border in the Sinai and also along the other borders of Palestine. However, it was apparent even to Nasser that it was purely as a defensive measure, as the bases were not equipped with War Factories, instead having Service Depots. War Factories were a more popular means of repairing vehicles, since they had more parts on hand, but Service Depots had been made to do the job without appearing aggressive. Oh, and Service Depots were also far, FAR cheaper to deploy, and involved fewer crates than a War Factory. Not that the hundreds of Gun Turrets, AA Guns, and Pillboxes positioned around Palestine's borders meant few crates had to be shipped, but at least Service Depots seemed less threatening, right?

Well, with the Suez Canal being nationalized and the borders of Palestine turning into a series of barricades and checkpoints within two days after the event, the crisis was rapidly growing. In addition to that, the Soviets had recently established a hold over Hungary, further elevating tensions in Europe. The US was trying to organize a NATO-type alliance in the Middle East, but it couldn't rely on British or French forces as the locals resented them the most. It also didn't like giving more free reign to SI, which had the third largest military presence in the region after the aforementioned two powers and was probably the most potent strike force now that the T-1955 was actively being fielded and trumping every other tank in the Allied arsenal. Thick, well-sloped armour with plenty of ceramic to cut down on weight—the composite armour was a full 300mm thick, with 50mm of hold-off armour on top of a 200mm space, and another grille layer atop that another 20cm away to prematurely set off HEAT warheads—and a 110mm long-barrelled cannon rendered it far above most counterparts, even the British Centurion tanks could not match up.

NATO tanks these days universally used improved 90mm high-velocity guns to ease logistics, and plenty of the old 76.2mm gun tanks were still not scrapped because of financial difficulties and the need for a large army to resist the USSR if it did anything. Hence the A-T-1955, designed to overpower the Soviet T-50, did not match well to them, as they were totally different classes of vehicles. The powerful V16 diesel engine, the same as was fitted on MCVs, gave the 100-ton tank 2500 horsepower, translating into about 65-70 kilometres sustained road speed. Of course, the price of its protection was that only one could cross a typical bridge at a time, but that was partly offset by any river deep enough to forbid wading being deep enough to deploy a Dockyard and assemble Field Transports on the spot for the vehicles. More practically they would, if possible, call in Corvette support and use it to shuttle tanks around, up to six tanks at a time. This was essentially as many as could fit in the space normally reserved for cargo and two attack boats, at the back of the Corvette. There had been talk of making the cargo hold also function in supporting helicopter operations, especially useful on combat against submarines, but for now that was just talk and the attack boats were more useful against subs anyways.

Interestingly, in terms of firepower, the current Allied main battle tanks still did not have fire-on-the-move capability, even though SI had started bringing that in with the Raider I's relatively primitive gun stabilization system back in 1942. Before that, only the 40mm Auto-cannons mounted on the APC-1935s and T-1936A models had stabilizers enabling "accurate" fire at cross-country speed, if one-half the typical gunnery numbers could be counted as accurate. The T-1942 i.e. Raider I had been able to score 50% as many main gun hits at cross-country speed as it would while stationary, the T-1945 i.e. Raider II brought that up to 60%, and it was hoped that the newest stabilizers would put the reduction in accuracy at no more than 25%, thus enabling full mobile fire. "Cross-country speed" meant the economy speed cross-country, which was also typically the charge speed now that the tank speeds had caught up with the times. What was truly horrifying was how placid everyone else was being with regards to tank development and an effective counter to the new Soviet tanks, trusting that their 90mm guns could penetrate Soviet armour effectively. It could, but it required quite some skill to pull off a one-shot-kill frontally against the T-50 that had been driven onto the British Embassy front lawn in Budapest during the Hungarian Revolution. Why didn't they trade it for the L7? Hannah would like to believe it was because of budgets, which was the stupidest reason she had ever heard or thought of but the only remotely plausible one.

Also, regarding mobility, though the things were unlikely to ever be viable for airlifting within the next twenty or more years, the T-1955 could easily be transported by sea and once on land… Suffice it to say that four track pods, though costlier to manufacture, were not much of a strain compared to the complexity of the hull itself, and were much simpler to use in combat. It also provided a far smoother ride with pneumatic shock absorbers incorporated and even some hydraulics near the middle of the vehicle as an experiment to improve pod orientation and manoeuvrability. Namely this meant faster turns by shoving the pods into something almost like an Omni-wheel arrangement (but far less angled relative to the front-back axis of the vehicle) and running the sides in opposite directions. It also seemed that with their economic troubles, the other countries of the world were still relying on steel as the main tank material, excellent.

The Shepard sisters knew full well that ceramic was more expensive to manufacture and use, but a number of mining and chemical companies in Canada (she didn't outsource business much, to protect local manufacturers) depended on her to stay in business, especially in these dark times. Palestine, North Korea and Algeria had a ways to go before they could be resource sources. For now, SI was investing in them in return for basically protection money, running a slight deficit with the massive investment. However, they were earning so much goodwill and expanding their recruitment pool enough that it would really come in useful with the next major war, which seemed, to the sisters and Gunter at least, imminent.

* * *

><p>AN: An awful thought just came to me, if I could explain Pokémon scientifically in my other main timeline, I can explain a LOT of things, such as the world of Avatar: The Last Air-Bender (Typing like that to not add too much to my Word dictionary). I see weak Fire, Water, Ground and Flying type attacks among the population, but no bio-electric fields i.e. "health bars". Azula for example has learnt some Electric moves as well, Katara has Ice type moves on her side, and Toph has Rock and Steel type moves to help her out. "Katara used Icicle Spear!" "Toph used Earthquake!" Disturbing, isn't it? And the animals can be explained too, as funny genetic experiments by the local Monitor… ugh.

ANY COMMENTS?


	6. It All Comes Crashing Down

A/N: I'm making Einstein be born much later, so that he can be around until after the Psychic Dominator Disaster. About shooting without seeing the target in that theatre back in Ch 4: she could see their legs/feet from under the rows of seats, so she knew where to sweep her gun.

THE STORY BY NO MEANS REPRESENTS MY OPINION DIRECTLY, MERELY WHAT THE CHARACTERS WOULD DO UNDER GIVEN CIRCUMSTANCES. I PERSONALLY DO NOT HAVE ANY PROBLEMS WITH ANY GROUPS… except for being fundamentalist in my rejection of fundamentalism, ironic, isn't it?

To **Somebody-Nobody**, thanks for the kind words. I know that they are working toward Generals 2, but I'm planning on most likely disregarding that just like I'll disregard RA4 if that ever happens, or C&C5. Unless… you said there was something like an Orca in it, hmm, maybe the first use of dual-turbine assault gunships near the end of the War on Terror? And how did you think I could throw away MCVs? They ARE, practically, C&C. What did you think of the MCV-1956 series (only A model produced so far)? For once, imperfect mechanical reliability.

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><p>Chapter 6: It All Comes Crashing Down<p>

_July, 1956_

Prime Minister Anthony Eden was under immense pressure from Conservative MPs at home who drew direct comparisons between the events of 1956 and the Munich agreement in 1938. The vast majority of Britain's population was screaming for action against Nasser's nationalization of the Suez Canal, and the king of Iraq, with whom Eden was dining when he got the news, told Eden to "Hit Nasser hard, hit him soon, and hit him by yourself". Even the leader of the Opposition immediately agreed that military action may be needed, but warned Eden the Americans were to be kept informed.

The French Premier of the time, Guy Mollet, held up a copy of Nasser's book, _The Philosophy of the Revolution_, and stated "this is Nasser's _Mein Kampf_, . If we're too stupid not to read it, understand it and draw the obvious conclusions, then so much the worse for us". On 29 July, three days after Nasser moved, the French Cabinet decided on military action. This would have disastrous consequences, as it gave Stalin a better jump-off in the form of Hungary for his great plan.

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><p><em>Late October, 1956<em>

The Austrian State Treaty in 1955 had raised hopes of Hungarian neutrality, as their neighbour had successfully become neutral. In June 1956, an uprising in Poland that had been put down resulted in a series of concessions to Poland by the Soviets. Hungarian-US relations began to improve in 1956, but the Hungarian Ministry of Internal Affairs slowed things down, fearing better relations with the West would weaken Communist rule in Hungary.

Students and journalists formed intellectual forums discussing the problems facing Hungary, these became crushingly popular and attracted thousands of participants. On October 16, the "Union of Hungarian University and Academy Students" (MEFESZ) was re-established in Szeged in defiance of the official Communist Student Union, the DISZ. Within days, other student bodies followed suit. The Technical University's students compiled a list of sixteen points including several national policy demands.

At the same time, all SI units in Germany were put on DEFCON 4 just in case.

The students heard that the Hungarian Writer's Union planned to express solidarity the next day by placing a wreath at the statue of General Bem, a hero of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, and planned a parallel demonstration of sympathy. In the afternoon of October 23, 1956, 20,000 protesters rallied near Bem's statue and the two groups, the Writer's Union and the students, read their manifestoes. The crowd then chanted the censored patriotic poem, the "National Song", which refrains: "This we swear, this we swear, that we will no longer be slaves." The Communist coat of arms was cut from the center of the Hungarian flag by a protestor and the others followed. By 6 PM, the crowd had surged across the Danube and swelled to two hundred thousand strong. The spirited and loud demonstration was surprisingly quite peaceful, but at 8 PM, the First Secretary of the country broadcast a speech taking a hard-line condemnation of the writers and students' demands. Having hoped for a reasonable explanation and negotiations like they had heard happened with SI and protestors, the demonstrators were enraged and carried out one of their demands, demolishing a 30-foot (9.1 meter) bronze statue of Joseph Stalin that had been erected on the site of a church that had been demolished for it. By 9:30 PM the jubilant crowd stuffed Stalin's boots, all that remained of the statue, with modified Hungarian flags.

At the same time, the Radio Budapest building also had a peaceful but overwhelmingly huge mob outside it. A delegation sent to broadcast the crowd's demands was detained and rumours spread that they had been shot, hence elevating the tension of the crowd. State Security Police, the AVH, fired the first shots after tossing canisters of tear gas from the windows, thus beginning the violence. The AVH attempt to hide arms and smuggle them in via ambulance to re-arm themselves didn't work, as the ambulance was intercepted and the payload seized. The Hungarian soldiers sent to relieve the AVH hesitated only for a moment before tearing the red stars from their caps and siding with the crowd. Provoked by the AVH's attack, the crowd set police cars alight, vandalized communist symbols, and seized weapons from depots to distribute to the masses.

The reports Hannah got from Budapest grew increasingly alarming. The mob was doing this all wrong… police cars made excellent rapid-transport and fast-attack vehicles in a communist country where few had motor vehicles, distribution of weapons needed to be organized… ah well, they were amateurs anyhow.

As for the Moscow reaction, Zhukov's disagreement with Stalin regarding use of brute force got him booted from office and the next highest General brought in, namely Gradenko, who was authorized to use all the old T-50s available to put down the uprising. They had contingency plans ready, now they used them. Soviet tanks and soldiers forced their way into the city, shooting anyone who shot back.

The Hungarian communist government fell on the 25th even while the crowds barricaded key roads and battled Soviet tanks with Molotov Cocktails and improvised explosive devices in the narrow streets of Budapest. The UN didn't bother intervening because it didn't want a war with the USSR, other than trying to pass a resolution critical of the Soviet intervention, a resolution that was vetoed by the Soviets. Eisenhower was aware of the US National Security Council's recommendation against intervening in Hungary, and did nothing. Hannah Shepard was similarly guilty of doing nothing to attack the USSR at the time, instead preferring to fortify the German borders and countryside while broadcasting instructions as to how to fight and smuggling rocket launchers and the newest battle rifles, created in 1954, and designated the A-WBR-7.5-100B. It was a good full-auto-capable rifle, useful for marksmanship at mid-range as well as assault duty, with a wrap-around mechanism distributing recoil to two springs on either side of the barrel and shortening the gun considerably in conjunction with the bull-pup configuration. Having the same calibre and barrel length as the first rifle she produced, it was designated B for the reason of avoiding confusion, but most just called it the BR-54 for convenience.

Thousands of Hungarians were smuggled out of Hungary by SI military intervention, which included several stand-offs with Soviet forces. However, these went peacefully, as most of the five local Soviet divisions sympathized perhaps too much with the Hungarians. However, it all came down on November 4, when 17 additional Soviet divisions were spotted entering Hungary and the SI forces beat a hasty retreat, grabbing as many refugees as they possibly could. What Hungarian revolutionaries were left were left fighting throughout the winter from whatever ramshackle shelters they could find. They would finally be slaughtered to the last woman and child—the men were long gone—mere days before their country's liberation from the Soviets during the looming war, after years of fighting against their oppressors. They died, but never would they be forgotten in any SI territory, unlike some other countries (here, the Archivists would like to extend a pointed glare toward the United States of America, the United Kingdom, and the French Republic) who preferred to study the Suez Crisis instead in their history classes instead of taking on the guilt of inaction.

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><p><em>Early November, 1956<em>

The British and French took until August to agree to a solution to the Suez problem, since SI was steadfastly refusing use of Palestine's territory and facilities, and to invade such a long-standing ally's Client State was political suicide. So, they had to rely on doing things the hard way, in the form of straight-up confrontation. On 30 October Britain and France sent their ultimatums, and the next day they began their invasions with a bombing campaign from Malta and the fleets in the Mediterranean. Nasser sank all 40 ships then in the Canal and closed it to all shipping in response. Despite the threat of invasion in the Canal zone, the Field Marshal of the forces in the Sinai believed that his army was more needed on the long border with Palestine since SI warships had been spotted off the southern tip of the Sinai and one War Factory had been spotted at a firebase on the border.

In fact, that War Factory was for the sake of an A-T-1955 that had been driven over a small escarpment as part of field testing. In less glorified terms, the men were so bored that they decided to test the safety of the vehicle and it was authorized when Hannah realized she had neglected to test that aspect of the vehicle's safety. This was crash safety, since it was inconvenient to find a barricade they could ram 100 tons of Main Battle Tank against without breaking through. Once she okayed the tests, three cadavers were obtained from a nearby morgue and cleaned up, dressed up, and strapped in before the tank was shoved over the escarpment by another tank.

The crumple frame fitted on the armour in the form of the rather solid and well-braced slat armour grilles and the spacing between the external and main armour served well in crumpling. The airbags that had been experimentally fitted into the cockpit of the vehicle to complement the crash webbing (sophisticated seatbelts) helped too. The result was that the vehicle's interior electronics had been severely damaged, its weapons lockers had stayed intact, the water-glycerin bags used in wet stowage burst to ensure nothing cooked off, and its weapons targeting systems were off-line. The main gun had only been saved from harm by the recoil absorption system taking the brunt of the impact with the sandy terrain and by the muzzle recoil dampener, which also functioned as a rather large crumple zone. The crash site had been pretty ugly and the tank had fallen over after impact to land on its side, then tipped over thanks to the slope in the sand, finally landing with the turret on the bottom and track pods in the air, the main gun pointed to the side. Not even the flamethrower fuel, which was basically a mix of diesel and ethanol nowadays, or pure ethanol when diesel was running short, had cooked off thanks to the fuel tank's containment systems, namely foam filling and reinforced double hull.

As for the three cadavers put inside, though most of the hardware inside the tank was ruined, no objects had flown around inside the vehicle, at least not hard enough to penetrate the rubber and plastic visors, helmets or padded body armour the cadavers were dressed in. They were all declared to be "survivors" after inspection for external and internal injuries, but the tank was trashed enough that a Service Depot would not be able to bring it back to functional condition in any reasonable time with so many internal systems wrecked. Hence they'd put up a War Factory so that it could be repaired quickly, however, the Egyptians didn't know that. The Egyptians also didn't know that the SI fleet at the southern tip of the Sinai were supposed to help mediate a peace as soon as possible between the impending belligerents, to try to contain the conflict and prevent a major war from breaking out, since Nasser had the support of the USSR and the US, which was looking to appease the Soviets.

Okay, so maybe the single vehicle was just an excuse, but one had to admit it was very suspicious how the Egyptians insisted on maintaining such a presence in the Sinai when they should have been in the Canal Zone… The Major General in charge of SI Middle East Theatre was concerned and had one War Factory set up in a border firebase just in case the Egyptians tried something stupid, just as a token gesture of "we are ready for you if you come at us". Unfortunately for the Egyptians, that precautionary measure locked them up in the Sinai enough that they were about to get their asses thoroughly kicked, militarily at least.

The British troops were well-trained, experienced, and with good morale, but suffered from budget limitations (so much that they actually used Field Refineries when possible to help offset the cost of war) and technological limitations from the new Depression. The Royal Navy however could project a lot of power through its guns and planes. Keightley, the invasion force commander, believed air power to be sufficient to defeat Egypt. His deputy believed in methodical and systematic armoured operations centered around the Centurion battle tank. The vehicle's effectiveness was on par with the older Raider I models, but was cheaper to build and maintain thanks to its lack of track pods. It was also shorter and a bit taller, with a 90mm gun about even in power with the aging 95mm guns of the Raider Is still in service with Britain (the UK hadn't updated those, in favour of eventually phasing out the Raider I for their own tanks).

French troops had recent experience from the Algerian War, which concluded with Algeria becoming an SI Client State—hey, it was better to have a trusted ally watch over an ex-colony than let it run amok—but suffered from extreme budget cuts. They had the elite Colonial Paratrooper Regiment, which had a "shoot first, ask questions later" policy toward any battlefield targets, which would result in several massacres of fleeing civilians. The French commanders had a good carrier force to call on, but few landing craft, and wanted fast operations.

That idea was rather castrated by the vehicles the French used. The main French tank was equipped with, to quote Hannah when she first looked at what they'd chosen to get instead of the (expensive) Raider Is she offered to sell to them, "about as much protection as a wet paper bag". It was the AMX-13, a fast tank, though that term was debatable, with a 75mm high-velocity anti-tank gun in the unique turret. If Intelligence data was accurate, the gun was being implemented on all Allied tanks too light to fully accommodate a 90mm cannon without modifications. It was a derivative of her old WTC-75-60 series, namely the most recent 75mm gun she'd created for the purpose, the WTC-75-70A, and so was quite reliable. However, the armour was at its thickest 40mm of RHA, to ensure the thing only weighed 15 tons combat-ready. She could kill it with one of her APCs and have said APC survive despite return fire regardless of the orientation of the vehicles relative to one another so long as they were on the same horizontal plane. That had to say something… then again her APCs did outweigh the AMX-13 more than two to one and had a better engine that let it run around even faster than the French vehicle, given the changes in the suspension since the twenty-year-old APC design entered use. The engine mostly only ran at full power when dozing something aside, otherwise the speed could get dangerous even for the reinforced treads. In fewer words, the French tanks were TERRIBLE.

If it wasn't because of how shitty the Egyptians were, things would be even worse. Politics, not competence, was the criteria for promotion, and Field Marshal Amer was only a close friend of Nasser's, who would prove grossly incompetent as a general. Rigid lines between officers and men meant mutual distrust and contempt, they were okay in defensive operations, but lack of rapport and small-unit leadership meant offensives were absurdly overcomplicated and difficult.

General Stockwell, in overall command of the task force, had in mind Operation Musketeer, capturing Alexandria by sea and then allowing British armoured divisions to engage in a decisive battle south of Alexandria and north of Cairo. The troop requirement for Musketeer was what led Britain to seek France out as an ally. To destroy the 300,000-strong Egyptian Army in a battle of annihilation Stockwell estimated 80,000 troops would be needed, or, if SI support could be garnered and assured in at least divisional strength, anywhere above 50,000 could probably pull it off. Unfortunately, following the terms of the Treaty of '52, SI was not willing to enter the war on the British side, so Stockwell had to seek out France, as he only had 50,000 soldiers at his disposal.

Unfortunately that battle plan was swayed by the French back to taking Port Said and the Canal Zone. It was termed Operation Revise, and came in three phases, the first involved securing air superiority, by mass destruction of all but the Cairo airport (through which Americans were being evacuated) and the Egyptian Air Force. On November 3, 1956 Nasser finally ordered his troops to the Canal zone instead of following Amer's advice. The leading French General had been driving for taking the Canal Zone ASAP instead of taking ten days to level Egypt's economy from the air in Revise Phase II. He only got approval on November 4, far too late to have the element of surprise.

Operation Telescope, the air landing part of the operation, was very rough. The first units of the 3rd Battalion of the British Parachute Brigade dropped on El Gamil Airfield late on November 5. They were able to use their mortars and anti-tank weapons to good effect once they were down, duelling it out with Egyptians supported by Soviet-made T-50s in urban combat. French Paratroops managed to seize the sewage plant and waterworks in Port Said by nightfall on the 6th, but only air support kept the T-50s back. However, the French were also methodical in executing POWs, which was rather stupid as it only garnered more resistance for them from units too scared to surrender.

The British stormed the beaches on November 7th with naval fire support and, on Sierra red beach, Centurion tanks. It was the only beach that succeeded after Nasser declared the war a "People's War", ordering soldiers to don civilian clothing and freely distributed weapons to the populace. The indecisiveness of Prime Minister Eden in bombing and shelling meant that soon many of the beaches were bogged down by T-50s parked next to apartment complexes or in market squares. Only the Centurion tanks were able to stack up to the T-50s in anything approaching even matches, as the French AMX-13s being landed proved to be one-strike fire-starters and had a hard time punching through the armour of the T-50s. On the other hand, the Centurions were doing fairly well, matching evenly against the T-50s thanks to better tactics, though their frontal armour didn't fully stack up.

The problem with Eden's interference was that the whole point of Phase II of Operation Revise had been to terror-bomb the Egyptians into the dirt. The drop near Port Fouad ended in disaster when the air-dropped AMX-13s met T-50s and were ground to pieces by the heavier tanks with heavier guns. The Egyptians destroyed Port Said's inner harbour, forcing the British to use the Fishing Harbour to land forces, and it took some time before enough Centurions were ashore to fully challenge the Egyptian T-50s. It took until November 8th before the British and French could break out of Port Said, and even then sniper-clearing operations continued.

In the meantime, Hannah Shepard was reading the reports forwarded to her and tittering about the Allied shortage of APCs. The UN were also getting together for a resolution declaring a ceasefire, spearheaded by the US and USSR. In her opinion, this was not a battle over the Suez Canal, but a fight between the Old Powers and the New Powers, minus her own armies. The Allies couldn't condemn the Soviets for Hungary if they were doing the same shit themselves… which was unfortunate. The war had lasted long enough, in her opinion, the world needed to focus back on Hungary and how it was being brutally ground under the heel of the Soviet oppressors instead of over this petty squabble. Hence, on November 7th, 1956, to elevate her own standing in the Arab world AND get more popular with the anti-war crowds in Britain and France, she telegraphed Nasser "Am willing to offer assistance in blockading Anglo-French forces from their objectives and mediating a ceasefire if the United Nations don't come up with something fast enough for our tastes. Signed: Hannah Shepard" and broadcast it across all radio stations. The response was an immediate affirmative, and Fifth Division, already at DEFCON 4, was dispatched to establish a buffer zone between the Egyptians and the Anglo-French forces. At the same time, she launched a media campaign across the world to rally support to her role as a mediator of peace and a protector of Small Powers. She did her best however to avoid irritating Britain or France, and sold it as "A government too embarrassed to quit needs a friend who can step in and give it an excuse to stop. SI is a friend of the British and French by helping them stop the war."

Very few friendly fire incidents occurred, surprisingly, and the front ground to a halt on November 9th in the morning as Egyptian troops retreated behind a solid line of T-1955s that closed up once the last Egyptian vehicles had gone by. The Egyptians had retreated through the night to and through the line, behind which three MCVs sat, having set up Field Hospital structures for injured Egyptians and a number of AA Guns to keep the skies watched just in case. This was in addition to the fairly new Sabre jets SI had purchased as an interim until a superior fighter could be obtained, namely the Arrow which SI had bought over once Diefenbaker tried to trash the project. Supposedly he believed interceptors weren't needed, well, SI was redesigning the thing to be a full fighter-bomber, true, but the RCAF (Royal Canadian Air Force) was looking into purchasing American Bomarc missiles. In less glorified terms, Diefenbaker had been pressured by the Americans into becoming an American territory with the signing of the NORAD agreement.

If he'd been a baker before he was Prime Minister, Hannah would likely have put out posters with the slogan "Die-F***-en-baker" or some variant thereof, unfortunately, he was not a baker or a cook. At least, he didn't cook up anything other than shitty deals selling his country to the US. He hadn't even given the Arrow a project review before trying to scrap it! The engine was good, the fighter was good, the only problem was the fuel and range, and the asshole had decided to try to throw it away. Well, she would show him… The Bomarc was a strictly defensive weapon, and nuclear detonations used to destroy clouds of Soviet bombers coming over the North Pole? Bullshit, they would fly far enough apart that only a few would be taken down, and the fallout would spread over much of Canada. The day that would have been called Black Friday by the Canadian aviation industry was renamed The Day Of Reckoning when the new loyalty of the Arrow project was announced and most of the research staff moved over to an SI facility, towing all aircraft, engines and parts along with them, escorted by a guard of four T-1955s to make the point that, according to her news broadcasts, "Just because the Canadian government wants to castrate Canadian aviation does not mean we the people will let it get away with that." Diefenbaker was powerless to stop her and would have been political suicidal to even try it, so he could do nothing but shrug and reply with "It is heartening to see private industry so invested in the well-being of our great nation. This display of patriotism only further proving that Canada is the best country to live in by far."

Many suspect that this display of overwhelming incompetence—the fact that the Avro Arrow was severely over budget until SI (well, more like Jane Shepard) came down on the researchers like a hammer one month after buying the project was glossed over—was what got Diefenbaker voted out of office by such a landslide later on. The Brain Drain to the US was astounding, almost a quarter of the engineers decided to go to the NASA program the US had, while the other, much larger, lot elected to stay in Canada and work under SI's fighter-bomber program.

Anyhow, the Sabre jets obtained as an interim solution was keeping the aerial stand-off working as the ground forces formed two long lines opposite each other. The turrets of the T-1955s and the earlier T-1945s (Raider IIs) were quite distinctive, so the British and French, seeing their long-time allies staring them down, ceased advancing and began broadcasting messages in confusion. The reply was that they were here to mediate a ceasefire. Needless to say, the British and French generals were quite angry about this, but as of 6 November a 40,000-strong mob had marched to Eden's home at 10 Downing Street and attempted to storm the building. It was where the Cabinet was meeting that day, and the clashes between protestors and police severely demoralized the Eden government to the point of wanting to get the war over and done with ASAP. This offered a politically convenient solution to them that would be easily accepted by the masses, who still well remembered the SI troops marching through their countries liberating them from Nazi oppression. These reasons of course were why Hannah offered the solution anyways, in addition to elevating her stance in the Middle East, having in the eyes of the Arabs successfully forced two European Great Powers to stand down.

The United Nations was also grateful as she helped buy them time to squabble it out regarding the peace terms the UN would enforce. However, the Soviets were not nearly so happy, and would not stand idly by. Reports began leaking from the USSR of a gas that was being used by the USSR for chemical warfare, reports that were quite alarming to say the least.

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><p><em>Moscow, November 27, 1956<em>

Stalin finished flipping through a sheaf of photographs "Gradenko, how long did it take for the gas to work?"

"Is it safe to speak?" Gradenko glanced at Kane.

Stalin snorted "Of course."

"The kill time depends on the weight of the subject, uh, the children were terminated in less than fifteen seconds and the adults took longer… eighteen to forty-two seconds."

Stalin nodded appreciatively "No survivors?"

"None, Comrade Stalin."

Nadia spoke up at this point "You covered it well?"

"There were… eight hundred and forty people in the village." It was a Polish village that had been used to test the Sarin gas.

Nadia frowned "My intelligence says there were eight hundred and seventy-seven people in the village. How do you account for this discrepancy?" She glared at him.

Gradenko glared back "Inaccurate intelligence?"

Stalin interjected "Enough, begin full production of the gas." He signed some papers, oh the paperwork that came with being General Secretary…

"Already under way, Comrade Stalin." Gradenko stated.

Stalin waved him off "That is all, Gradenko."

"Forgive me Comrade Stalin but there is something else. Outside Torun we have met with guerilla resistance. They have blocked the roads into town here and here." He gestured at the map.

Stalin rolled his eyes in boredom, more rabble? "They are enemies of the People. Destroy the town and kill everyone in it." He got up "come Nadia, I have an assignment that requires your special skills." The both left the room.

Gradenko left through a different door, after Kane left the room, knowing perfectly well that Nadia's special skills were probably those she had when she was on her back. He strongly disliked Stalin's mistress, but it wasn't like he could do anything about it.

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><p>AN: Note, in the later battles against racism and sexism, I will make it clear that Hannah considers actions like the ones in Die Hard 3 (walking around half naked with a placard that says—*censored for racism*) not to be hate crimes (it is however grounds for bringing the man to a police psychiatrist), but if there's more than two people doing it at the same time then that's an organized hate crime. Also, painting it in public on the side of a wall or a fence for example is a hate crime, and so is having it on your car. At the very least, the police will not interfere if you get your ass kicked unless it's life-threatening i.e. they walk over instead of run over to where you're being beaten up.

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><p><em>End of 1956<em>

Hannah Shepard was starting to get a headache and began to understand exactly why Eisenhower had shoved the hot potato of Alabama at her. It was a full-scale counterinsurgency, or, in less padded terms, the whole region, hell, most of the American South, needed a good purging. Sometimes, maybe there was a modicum of usefulness in the methods of Hitler, Stalin, and so on after all… She could not believe she'd just thought that, but it was true.

The Suez problem had been resolved, but more alarming news had come up regarding Soviet actions in Poland and Hungary. Whole villages were being killed to the last man, woman and child as the Soviet Army chased… something. Whoever or whatever it was, it was trying to head for Germany… The Hungary garrison of 22 infantry and armoured divisions also seemed poised on the border of Austria the Czech Republic… She sent a message to her five divisions in Germany to go to DEFCON 3 immediately upon news of a Soviet incursion, thus giving authorization to engage when needed, and quickly made arrangements with Jane so that she could leave Canada and head out to Germany right away.

The new report coming in just now said that the Soviets were chasing survivors from a chemical weapons test, and that her Black Ops squads in Germany had, acting out of pure conscience, picked them up. Well, she couldn't condemn the units for doing what she would have done, but she wasn't happy with it either. The reports were however rather interesting, speaking of a nerve agent used to massacre a Polish village just to test its effectiveness, then resulting in a Soviet Army stampede to the German border in an attempt to kill the escapees and cover things up, or was it to cover up an impending invasion?

She had a terrible feeling that World War Three was about to start, probably before New Year's. Little did she know at the time that her question of what the Soviets were trying to cover up had a one-word answer: Both.

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><p><em>December 25, 1956<em>

Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, Tenth and Eleventh SI Field Divisions were collectively annoyed. Eleventh had been retrained mostly from personnel from the now-disbanded First Aviation Division along with some Logistics Brigade troops who had wanted front-line duty. Well, here they were, stationed fifty kilometres behind the German border and five kilometres behind the main defence fortifications, on CHRISTMAS DAY. Most of the other Allied units had partying, leave, or SOMETHING today, but not them, excluding fresh turkeys brought in and cooked in the field kitchens for Christmas breakfast.

That annoyance lasted right up until a general distress call came from the front line near the Oder where massed Soviet tanks were attempting to cross the river but being nailed in place by the first groups out of thousands of Gun Turrets (these first groups were earlier, cheaper versions with the 90mm Allied gun instead of 110mm SI gun) and artillery installations installed behind the border. These heavy tanks resembled the T-50, but had two guns in the turret instead of one, more bulk and less speed, and were eventually identified as T-55s. Infantry trying to get by the fortifications were mown down en masse by Pillboxes while aircraft duelled it out with AA Guns. The four SI Field Divisions were soon on the move toward the border of Germany, using the Czech Republic as a buffer for now to buy time on that front while they descended on the Soviet forces crossing the Oder like a giant hammer.

Einstein, the most respected physicist of the 1900s, had stated "I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones." Well, he would soon be very wrong, as he would know soon with what weapons World War Three would be fought, making the first clause false and thus the entire statement false.

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><p>AN: Well, I've already posted Ch 1 of SI Archives Part 3: Stalin's Lunacy, and to think that at one point I thought this arc could last 7 or more chapters…

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